Waterford aims to 'thrive' through heritage scheme

Waterford is one of five urban centres to benefit from funding of up to €7 million each under THRIVE - the Town Centre First Heritage Revival Scheme - awarded under one of Ireland’s two European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Regional Programmes.

The funding will be utilised to regenerate the largest early 18th Century townhouse, 18 Lady Lane, on one of the oldest streets in Waterford City’s Viking Triangle.

The building will be converted into a visitor attraction, Tír na nÓg, the land of young people, to create a magical journey of discovery celebrating children’s past, present and future while conserving the original fabric and decorative internal features of the building to ensure authenticity is retained.

Morris Conway, Senior Architect with Waterford City and County Council explained: “The THRIVE heritage-led thinking ties in very well with Waterford City and County Council’s thinking. We have been actively pursuing a policy of heritage-led regeneration, especially in Waterford city centre and in our town centres."

“This is a project that tries to promote heritage and cultural experience to younger generations, to children and younger people," said Mr Conway.

"It’s something that had come through our museum experiences, our outreach programmes with our libraries, and also our community involvement schemes," he added.

He went on to comment: “Sustainability, togetherness and beauty are the pillars of the New European Bauhaus. Our taking has always been around sustainability, both environmental, economic and social sustainability."

"So, it tied in very much with the new European Bauhaus," he said.

"Sometimes, heritage building, a cultural use, can work well because it can be light touch," he added.

Members of the local authority joined with the European Urban Initiative Capacity Building team recently for a training session on how to better integrate the new European Bauhaus values of aesthetics, sustainability and participation into projects and urban strategies from early stages of development.

Rose Power, THRIVE Programme Executive, with the Southern Regional Assembly said: “With THRIVE, what we’re trying to do is something a little bit more innovative, a little bit different. It works on the basis of urban regeneration, but we were looking to target the areas that most need that regeneration."

“This is about being bold, being brave, being innovative, and having a huge level of ambition to create projects that will be genuinely transformative for all of the citizens in our towns and cities across Ireland," she said.

Funded by the ERDF during the 2021-2027 programming period, Irish Regional Assemblies launched the Thrive programme to financially support Irish local authorities in renovating derelict heritage buildings in their town centres.