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Matthew Mckeague

@memckeague.bsky.social
1.4K followers 899 following 653 posts

CEO @archhfund.bsky.social | communities, built environment & social infrastructure | interested in all kinds of places | music and running most of the rest of the time

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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 18h
Great to see four @archhfund.org.uk funded projects scooping AJ Retrofit awards @news.architectsjournal.co.uk. Congrats to: - St Andrew’s Chapel - Millport Town Hall - Horizon Youth Zone - Eagle House 👏👏👏 www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/winners...
architectsjournal.co.uk
Winners revealed for the 2026 AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards
The AJ can reveal the 18 category winners of this year’s AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards, announced tonight (Thursday 24 September) at a ceremony at The Troxy in east London
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Gordon Barr @gordonbarr.scot · 28/09/2026
Introducing my new side web project: PlaceExplorer.org - UK-wide neighbourhood stats & open heritage data in one place. Explore IMD, community need & historic buildings - for funding applications or curiosity. Free for non-commercial use. More info: www.linkedin.com/pulse/introd...
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Bit surprised by all this Man City stuff as Joe Hart said he'd been told by the club it was all basically fine.
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Riddel's warehouse really is one of Belfast's most remarkable spaces.
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
"The fires in Glasgow should prompt a UK-wide reckoning about maintenance, funding & what genuine regeneration requires...Briggait, Huntly, Dumfries and Kilmarnock, some of the best evidence anywhere in the UK of how to save these buildings & put them to good use." www.bdonline.co.uk/opinion/scot...
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
"The fires in Glasgow should prompt a UK-wide reckoning about maintenance, funding & what genuine regeneration requires...Briggait, Huntly, Dumfries and Kilmarnock, some of the best evidence anywhere in the UK of how to save these buildings & put them to good use." www.bdonline.co.uk/opinion/scot...
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
'...making this building sustainable is how it will continue to serve our community for another 125 years.' > nice @news.architectsjournal.co.uk piece on the phased approach to the development of The Ladder in Redruth www.architectsjournal.co.uk/buildings/ra.... @archhfund.org.uk
architectsjournal.co.uk
Raising the Ladder: THING converts Cornish library into arts centre
The Ladder community arts centre is a phased retrofit of the Grade II-listed former Passmore Edwards Free Library. Alfred Yatlong Yeung pays a visit
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
'...making this building sustainable is how it will continue to serve our community for another 125 years.' > nice @news.architectsjournal.co.uk piece on the phased approach to the development of The Ladder in Redruth www.architectsjournal.co.uk/buildings/ra.... @archhfund.org.uk
architectsjournal.co.uk
Raising the Ladder: THING converts Cornish library into arts centre
The Ladder community arts centre is a phased retrofit of the Grade II-listed former Passmore Edwards Free Library. Alfred Yatlong Yeung pays a visit
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Were the Vikings positive or negative for house prices?
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Some really inspiring examples of positive change from across the UK in our latest Impact Report @archhfund.org.uk. Worth reading as a short break from the doom and gloom!
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
'...the breakdown of our civic infrastructure is happening in plain sight and it needs urgent remedy.' > much of this is 🎯 by Gordon Brown. How to rebuild community life really should be much higher up our priority list. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Youth clubs, trade unions, pubs: here's how Burnham can fix Britain's social recession | Gordon Brown
From volunteering to the WI, we have lost so many ways to meet our neighbours. Making that easier can only be good for society, says former UK prime minister Gordon Brown
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Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
RNLI staff have faced "unacceptable" online & physical abuse since anti-migrant protests. "Deliberate misinformation and a misunderstanding" by thugs hiding behind "balaclava or a keyboard". Solidarity with RNLI volunteers. They do a great job in saving lives, must be respected.
bbc.co.uk
Abuse of RNLI volunteers 'wholly unacceptable', chief says
Peter Sparkes says there has been "deliberate misinformation" spread about the charity.
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
'...we need a new financial model for high street regeneration to ensure that every postcode benefits.' > good piece by @jacktshaw.bsky.social and @chriscurtis94.bsky.social, emphasising the need for ongoing need public investment in town centres to help reimagine their purpose and structure.
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John Grindrod @grindrod.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I have a piece on the Barbican Conservatory in the FT magazine design special today! www.ft.com/content/6c42...
What happens when the future gets old - headline in the FT magazine about the Barbican, article by John GrindrodFull spread of headline, article opening and photo of the Barbican Conservatory being constructed
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Bologna
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The Architectural Heritage Fund @archhfund.org.uk · 03/09/2026
🚨 Are you looking to take on, adapt & reuse a historic building? Through our #HeritageRevivalFund, grants are now available to help communities across England rescue and repurpose neglected historic buildings, with a focus on town centre locations. Learn more: ⬇️ ahfund.org.uk/what-we-do/f...
Young people walking in front of the Poor Priests Hospital, Canterbury. Credit: Richard Lakos.
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
"I think the future of pubs is here. The people should come and look at this place and see what has happened here.." > nice piece on community owned pubs in Essex, including @archhfund.org.uk supported The Railway Arms www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Essex landlords say community-owned pubs are 'the future'
Community-owned pubs are "the way forward" say Essex landlords who are enjoying a successful spell.
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The Architectural Heritage Fund @archhfund.org.uk · 27/08/2026
📣 Job alert! We are looking for a highly organised and detail-focused Grants Assistant to provide responsive administrative support to our Grants teams.  📅 Deadline for applications: 9am on 18th September 2026 Find out more and apply: ⬇️ ahfund.org.uk/what-we-do/i...
St John's Church in Great Yarmouth.
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Reggio Emilia. Beautiful buildings, very few people.
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The Architectural Heritage Fund @archhfund.org.uk · 25/08/2026
Opened in 1911, the Electric Palace is one of the oldest surviving purpose-built cinemas. 📽 After laying abandoned & forgotten for 16 years, it was later rediscovered and brought back into use through a major restoration project. Learn more: 👇 ahfund.org.uk/anniversary/... #AHF50
Project of the Week 33.The Electric Palace Cinema in 1912, just one year after its opening. Courtesy of the Harwich Electric Palace Trust.The Electric Palace Cinema when the AHF supported it back in 1980. Credit: Harwich Electric Palace Trust.The Electric Palace Cinema screen. Credit: Harwich Electric Palace Trust.
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
"Rebuilding trust through local infrastructure provides one possible framework for exploring how political rhetoric might translate into tangible civic renewal." > Good piece this by @ojgarling.bsky.social and @drbethkitson.bsky.social.
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
The rain making up some lost time in the centre of Emilia-Romagna at the moment
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The Architectural Heritage Fund @archhfund.org.uk · 19/08/2026
📣 We’re seeking a Finance Manager! If you're a qualified accountant looking for a role where you can shape systems, support meaningful heritage and community-led projects, and grow with a scaling organisation, we'd love to hear from you. Learn more & apply: ⬇️ ahfund.org.uk/what-we-do/i...
Sheerness Dockyard Church. Credit: Dirk Lindner.
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Architects' Journal @news.architectsjournal.co.uk · 19/08/2026
The RIBA has announced a four-project shortlist for this year’s Reinvention Award.
architectsjournal.co.uk
‘Inspiring examples of retrofit’: RIBA reveals 2026 Reinvention Award shortlist
‘Inspiring examples of retrofit’: RIBA reveals 2026 Reinvention Award shortlist
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Nick Plumb @nickplumb.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
New Community Engagement Survey findings are out (replaces Community Life Survey and DCMS' Participation Survey). Regional differences between people's perceived ability to influence decisions affecting their local area. Significant gap between London and the NE.
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Janine Gibson @janinegibson.ft.com · 15/08/2026
Cure Britain's dodgy shop epidemic using this one simple trick, writes London Centric's Jim Waterson. @jim.londoncentric.media as.ft.com/r/9af37b1e-7...
as.ft.com
How Burnham can curb Britain’s tax-dodging shops
The prime minister is missing a simple trick in his campaign to revive high streets: enforcing the basic laws of doing business
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Excellent piece this. Multiple factors here but agree that schools, particularly academies, seem to treat wellbeing as some sort of side issue for young people.
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The Architectural Heritage Fund @archhfund.org.uk · 12/08/2026
Success for #AHFsupported John O'Groats Mill as it scoops up a trio of awards at the 2026 RICS Awards in Scotland, including Project of the Year! 🏆 John O'Groats Mill Trust has developed the unused watermill into a heritage visitor attraction & community venue. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2623179...
heraldscotland.com
Revitalisation of John O’Groats Mill scoops project of the year award
The winners of the RICS Awards 2026 in Scotland have been revealed - and a revitalised mill in John O’Groats has been named the very best project.
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Early run 🏃 around Norwich. Plenty to photo!
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The Architectural Heritage Fund @archhfund.org.uk · 04/08/2026
The closure of this beloved pub in Llandwrog left villagers with no place to meet or socialise. Having been brought into community ownership & reopened with a brand-new look, Ty’n Llan ‘has transformed [the] village and brought [the] community back together.’ ahfund.org.uk/anniversary/... #AHF50
Project of the Week 30.The community standing outside Ty'n Llan in 2021.An aerial shot of Llandwrog, with Ty'n Llan in the centre.People having a drink inside the renovated and re-opened pub.
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
'...a flexible-use scheme that draws people back into the town centre for the food entrepreneurs, artists, small businesses and community events...'> great to see Buttermarket in Redruth up for a RIBA award. Exactly the type of project that can revive our town centres. www.riba.org/news/uks-lea...
riba.org
Conservation Award shortlist 2026 announced
UK's leading heritage projects shortlisted for RIBA's inaugural Conservation Award 2026
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
'...a flexible-use scheme that draws people back into the town centre for the food entrepreneurs, artists, small businesses and community events...'> great to see Buttermarket in Redruth up for a RIBA award. Exactly the type of project that can revive our town centres. www.riba.org/news/uks-lea...
riba.org
Conservation Award shortlist 2026 announced
UK's leading heritage projects shortlisted for RIBA's inaugural Conservation Award 2026
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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
A really interesting article on what can be done to reinvent and revise the high street. And, yes, it requires an active state backed up by resources
It is perhaps 5,000 years since in-person retail started. Since then it has served two purposes: where we buy things, and where we meet. The first paid for the second without anyone noticing they were separate. Footfall for goods subsidised the public realm - the benches, the safety in numbers, the reason to walk somewhere, to exchange news. Online shopping has exposed and largely killed off that arrangement. What's left is the second purpose, unfunded, in a set of buildings that used to do it for free. So if we want a solution for the high street it will come from finding a financial model to pay for that second role.
This can't mean propping up shops. It must mean putting new kinds of civic life into buildings retail no longer needs. Not every high street can have an outpost of No 10 but most could host more of the state. Local tax offices, magistrates courts, police stations and cottage hospitals have gone. But by creating local hubs shared by multiple public services, front of house can come back.Any solution to our high streets' dilemma needs to force these delinquent owners to bring buildings back into use or surrender them. Councils have powers but rarely the capacity or confidence to use them. A state-backed capital vehicle - a National Trust for the high street - could take interim ownership while long-term plans are made. It would be transformative. And we need a fighting fund, with a crack team of lawyers ready to shift the expectations of every property owner whose building is blighting their community.
If you're not using it, and someone else can, then the choice should be out of your hands.
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Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 02/08/2026
How to save the British high street ft.trib.al/Gep6DvU | opinion
ft.trib.al
How to save the British high street
Communities need help to tackle the blight of delinquent landlords who let empty properties decay
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Leo Hickman @leohickman.carbonbrief.org · 30/07/2026
++BREAKING++ The UK and Spanish governments have issued a joint statement overnight: "[We] agreed that this summer’s wildfires demonstrated that climate change was now a national security emergency facing Europe and threatening our way of life." www.gov.uk/government/n...
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The Architectural Heritage Fund @archhfund.org.uk · 27/07/2026
Excellent opportunity to play a role in shaping the future of one of our #HeritageDevelopmentTrusts and to help drive positive change throughout Stoke-on-Trent through heritage-led regeneration. @re-formheritage.bsky.social is seeking new trustees to join its board. Find out more and apply: 👇
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Liam Thorp @liamthorp.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Andy Burnham says he wants to end rough sleeping, how difficult will that be & what approach should he take? It’s a subject I’ve been writing about for years in Liverpool & the city provides a good test case for the scale of the problem and what’s needed A long but hopefully useful thread 🧵
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Adam Tranter @adamtranter.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Cities dismantled their tram networks to become “motor cities of the future”. The result? You could travel further within 30 mins via public transport in 1957 than you can in 2026. Cities are seeking billions to rebuild networks. Incredible piece of work this.
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
That's...very expensive. Would obviously be very interesting to know the gap between the insurance claim £ and that estimate.
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The Architectural Heritage Fund @archhfund.org.uk · 21/07/2026
This building served Haverfordwest as the central post office until its closure in the 1980s. In 2017, a team of locals came together to save it from decline & transform it into Haverhub - a social enterprise community hub. Read more: 👇 ahfund.org.uk/anniversary/... #AHF50
Project of the Week 28. The exterior of Haverhub at The Old Post Office, Haverfordwest. Credit: Haverhub CIC.A summer market in the yard at Haverhub. Credit: Haverhub CIC.
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Luke Tryl @luketryl.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Seen a few people saying rough sleeping policy isn’t aimed at median public concern. Quite apart from any policy/moral imperative it really is - rough sleeping comes up time again in focus groups as one of the most visible signs of Broken Britain and community decline!
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
'Born in Armthorpe near Doncaster, Keegan came to then Liverpool manager Bill Shankly's attention playing more than 100 games for Scunthorpe Utd, sitting on a bin outside Anfield...' > v sad, one of Donny's finest (but one of DRFC's worst decisions not signing him). www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...
bbc.co.uk
Kevin Keegan: Liverpool legend and former Newcastle United and England manager dies aged 75
Former England captain and manager Kevin Keegan dies at the age of 75, seven weeks after he revealed he had been diagnosed with stage four cancer.
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Ross Mudie @rmudie96.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
An interview with John Healey on regional economic policy that is very worth reading: sites.harvard.edu/uk-regional-...
sites.harvard.edu
John Healey
  John Healey has served as Member of Parliament for Wentworth and Dearne since 1997.  He served as a Treasury minister from 2002 to 2007, and Minister of State for Local Government, then Housing...
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Bit like a rewatch of Escape to Victory
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The Architectural Heritage Fund @archhfund.org.uk · 15/07/2026
Since opening in 1860, the Market Hall has been an important asset in Cardigan. Thanks to conservation + improvements made by Cardigan Building Preservation Trust, the building’s long-term future as a vibrant food hub & small traders’ market has been secured. ahfund.org.uk/anniversary/... #AHF50
Project of the Week 27.New accessible entrance to Cardigan Market Hall. Credit: Owen Howells Photography for Menter Aberteifi Cyf. The historic exterior of Cardigan Market Hall.The interior of Cardigan Market Hall. Credit: Menter Aberteifi Cyf.
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Ok, so I have Spain in the work sweepstake and I am in Spain on Sunday. This will make things better...
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The Architectural Heritage Fund @archhfund.org.uk · 14/07/2026
📣 We are seeking new consultants to support the #HeritageRevivalFund! We are specifically looking for: - A Communications Consultant/Consultancy, and - Project development, assessment, and monitoring consultants. 📅 Apply by: 10 August Read the full tender briefs: ahfund.org.uk/what-we-do/i...
Canada House, Sheffield. Credit: Vox Media.
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
I've been to a few historic pools but I can see why Victoria Baths has a strong claim to being the UK's finest. The details and quality are exceptional👌- Manchesterism at its finest.
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Station South, Levenshulme. A cycle shop, cafe and community hub. One of @archhfund.org.uk's high street projects under our last programme. Done on a fairly tight budget, but really impressed at how this has turned out.
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Matthew Mckeague @memckeague.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
I've been to a few historic pools but I can see why Victoria Baths has a strong claim to being the UK's finest. The details and quality are exceptional👌- Manchesterism at its finest.
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