place transformation

Our mission is to work with local community, stakeholders and business to regenerate Longton town centre.

Our inclusive strategies provide informal spaces where knowledge exchange and participation in regenerative processes happen through conversation and shared experience.

Large scale annual events bring thousands of visitors to Longton Town Centre. The inaugural 2023 Longton Carnival and Pig Walk Parade attracted over 9,000 to the town centre and we expect numbers to grow in 2024 and 2025! Our cultural events build teams of volunteers, provide work opportunities for local creatives, bring national investment from the Arts Council and most importantly create a sense of hope for the future in a place that has long felt forgotten and left behind.

Art Club runs 2 weekly sessions during term time. Since Jan 2022 we have built a membership of 80 young people (aged 8-17) who have experienced a range of mental health issues including anxiety and self-harm that have removed them from school, as well as neurodivergent conditions including autism, dyspraxia and dyslexia. Attending Art Club supports them to manage their mental health through creativity and socialise in a safe environment. Art Club members inform our company strategies and advise on all of our projects.

We are part of an interdisciplinary academic research team working with local community and artists to record the biodiversity that exists in Longton town centre, brownfield land and nature reserves within walking distance.

Our 2023 pilot program hosted community walks with ecologists to discover pollinator species, birds and bats. All participants became citizen scientists, recording urban biodiversity on open source data apps. We will launch our 2024 program with an interactive art exhibiton and academic research findings.

In 2019 we moved into no.6 Bennett Precinct, Longton Exchange Shopping Centre. Our cultural activities made a positive impact on visitor footfall and in recognition of this the owners invested in the development of the Longton Exchange Cultural Quarter.

Renovating empty units, redecorating the streetscape and offering ‘rent free’ deals has attracted creative independent businesses to our end of town where we have established The Moony Club at no.15 Bennett Precinct as a community hub and cultural activation zone.

We retain our old unit no.6 as an enterprise space for local creatives to test and develop new business ideas with our support. Branded The Block by it’s current tenants the space is attracting new visitors to the area and building a community of young creatives in Longton.

We regularly commission and install public artworks from local and national artists in Longton town centre. Recent installations include ‘The Balance of Things’ by David Bethell and ‘Renewal’ by Anna Berry. Public artworks are often contentious and can cause a stir on the street and on social media. Inspiring discussion and debate about the public realm, how it is used and who decides what happens there is a strategy that engages local communities in wider questions around regeneration and invites them to participate in masterplanning.

Longton was once described as a ‘flourishing market town’ built on 19th century industrial wealth from coal, iron and the potteries. Many buildings from this era are included in the Heritage Conservation Area and have attracted investment from Historic England and the City Council for much needed repair works.

Our work connects communities with local heritage through care for buildings, nature and land.