Buildings for Buzzwords

First published online 27/05/21

“The future of an iconic landmark has been secured” triumphantly proclaims the recent press release about Bridport’s Literary and Scientific Institute (LSi). The document, published on 6th May, outlines a new plan that will see the building occupied by a tech company, a financial services business, and the “startup charity 3DCentre”. It claims this will provide “new opportunities empowering young people”; facilitate “growth, charitable outreach and individual personal development”, and bring “training, employment and prestige” to the town. [1] On first glance, this plan sounds dynamic, progressive, and in touch with the concerns of today. However, interrogate the proposal a bit, look past the cloud of corporate speak, and a less rosy reality emerges. A reality which will see a building that has in recent years received approximately £3 million in charitable grants and donations [2] become little more than a high-end office block, effectively closed off to the local community who committed so much to its revival.

But to understand the significance of this new proposal, especially for those who might never have even heard of the LSi, a bit of backstory is needed. To help, I’ve broken this brief history into chapters.

Chapter 1 – Origins

The LSi was originally established as a Mechanics Institute in 1835 for the education of workers. It was later remodelled as the Literary and Scientific Institute with the broader objective to encourage the cultivation of literature, arts and science, and was even home to an art school. After WWII, it was managed by the Dorset County Council, where it housed Bridport’s public library until 1997.

Chapter 2 – Neglect, attack of the commercial let, and a new hope

After this, the building began to fall into disuse and Dorset County Council attempted to sell the building as office space. This prompted a local outcry, a legal dispute over who owned the building, and resulted in the formation of The Bridport Area Development Trust (BADT) in 2009. All these factors culminated in a final High Court decision in 2015 that the building be vested to the BADT which, with various grants, would restore the building and create a new community resource. As Nerys Watts, head of Heritage Lottery Fund South West, said at the time:

“the plans we’re supporting will see the creation of a multi-use space that’s open to the public including heritage interpretation space, a café, rental space for small creative enterprises [...] Projects such as this are a wonderful use of Lottery Funds”. [3]

Chapter 3 – A faltering start, a pandemic, and revenge of the commercial let

Such was the vision, and a version of it materialised in 2018 when the renovated LSi re-opened its doors with a café, hireable hot desks, meeting rooms, and a commercial tenant, Crowdfunder, occupying the top floor. However, soon concerns about management and costs exceeding income meant that this iteration began to be seen as unviable by BADT trustees. Then came the pandemic and the building was closed on 17th March 2020. In early August, it was then discovered that the trustees had approved a real estate listing for both the ground floor and basement to commercial tenants. This prompted a backlash, including from former trustees, and the listing was removed. Following this controversy, the trustees decided instead to entertain two alternative proposals for the use of LSi – the first being the successful one led by existing tenant Crowdfunder and a second, led by the Dorset Arts Development Company, proposing that it become a creative hub with a focus on supporting people beginning creative careers. Chasing Cow enters briefly here as we were consulted about the second proposal for which we expressed our enthusiastic support and a desire for locally hireable equipment and a free community space component. On 14th January the LSi announced that the community would be part of this decision-making process, their website stating that: “both bids [...] will be evaluated by BADT in January, with a public consultation following in March.” [4] This public consultation never took place and on 6th May came the press release announcing their decision to go with Crowdfunder’s proposal. So that’s the history. But what’s so bad about this pushed-through Crowdfunder proposal? After all, crowdfunding is a useful way to get certain kinds of projects funded, and that “3DC charity” has a pretty cool name. This is where some interrogation of the three tenants' community benefit is needed.

“After the success of the High Court case in 2015 and the completion of the building’s renovation, it appeared to have a promising future ahead. Now, in a case of déjà vu, it seems that the commercial path has once again been reverted to”

Financial services company

Of the three companies, the one given the least attention in the LSi’s literature is an unnamed “financial services company”. They are hardly mentioned in their press release and even in the LSi’s more expansive web article on their plan we only learn that they are a “firm of independent financial advisers” who will occupy the top floor of the building. [5] Admittedly, it’s quite hard to give a financial services company a prosocial veneer, but even so the lack of detail is impressive. Ultimately, the board of trustees want to suggest that this tenant is the ‘commercial one’, with the other two tenants doing the heavy lifting when it comes to community benefit, so let’s look at them.

Crowdfunder

Crowdfunder, formerly acknowledged by the LSi as its commercial tenant, is a for-profit tech company who now plan to occupy the beautiful main room of the ground floor. There’s plenty on Crowdfunder in the LSi’s literature on the plan, mostly in quotes from their co-founder Simon Deverell such as:

“[We] balance a sustainable offering to the public, ensuring that, through our activities, BADT delivers on its promise to the community of Bridport and the NHLF [National Heritage Lottery Fund]” [6] 

Elsewhere Deverell further states that Crowdfunder’s overall proposal delivers 

“in spades on the charitable objectives of BADT (and then some) and [...] satisfying the conditions of the funders.” [7]

As one can see, Crowdfunder expends a lot of words declaring that their plans deliver community benefit, expecting this to be accepted at face value. Yet there’s very little on what they are offering to the community beyond the possibility of a couple more jobs. The LSi’s literature instead largely appeals to the projects that are funded through Crowdfunder’s platform as evidence of their community good, citing “MentalHealthMatters” and “partnerships with Unicef, NHS, Wellcome Trust”. [8] No doubt these projects and causes are good, as are many on Crowdfunder’s website, but it’s critical to make clear that Crowdfunder does not fund these projects, people who donate do. Crowdfunder is simply an online platform – not dissimilar to GoFundMe or Kickstarter – through which people crowdfund their project. Therefore, to cite the projects funded via their platform as evidence of any grand social engagement or achievement on their part seems disingenuous – it’s like a camera company taking credit for the photos people are taking with their camera. These projects are just part of how Crowdfunder do business; though they may waive fees for charities and Covid relief, they exist to make profit and do so by taking a cut of the funds raised through them. Indeed, their March 2021 shareholder update reports that “our business has fared very well during the pandemic”, reporting post-tax profits of £105K in 2020. [9] It is ultimately difficult to see what this “commercial engine”, as they describe themselves to shareholders, truly offers the people of Bridport.

3DC

Even if Crowdfunder falls short of its co-founder’s performative proclamations, what about its partner 3DC who will also be occupying the building? Firstly, 3DC is not a charity as the LSi’s press release claims, but a Community Interest Company (CIC). This is a different legal structure: CICs can operate more commercially and are not as tightly regulated as charities. But nomenclature aside, according to the press release 3DC aims to: 

“empower young people through mentoring in the fields of human rights and environmental and economic justice. [...] 3DC’s team of mentors will support apprentices in building their own nonprofit, purpose-driven enterprises to address challenges faced locally, regionally, nationally or globally, acting as an incubator for new projects.” [10]

There’s an awful lot of words here but little substance. The take-away seems to be that 3DC is going to help ‘young people’ do good things like set up their own charities. However, beyond this there is no real transparency about what 3DC do and “human rights and environmental and economic justice” and “challenges faced locally, regionally, nationally or globally” encompass just about every problem in the world. This lack of clarity about 3DC’s operations is ultimately explained by the fact that the company only became legally incorporated on 31st March 2021. [11] This poses myriad questions; not least, how could it have been part of a proposal that was supposedly being evaluated in January when it didn’t exist? Moreover, 3DC was set up with only one director, has no membership, and is therefore accountable to no one. Finally, is what 3DC is offering, in all its vagueness, really a reflection of what local ‘young people’ want? Do young people really want a “pilot hub for decentralising third-sector opportunities” [12], might they not just prefer an accessible space outside their home with good Wifi? If the BADT had delivered on the promised public consultation then they might have found out the answer to such questions, but then, perhaps, maybe they didn’t want to know.

Public Access

So that’s the three tenants, but where exactly do the public stand? After all, the press release clearly states that there will be “community access to events and facilities within the LSi” [13]. But what form will this take? A convoluted answer is provided in the LSi’s longer web article where it says that public access will be changed to an “‘inside / out’ approach” with an events programme driven by their tenants. It’s further stated that the tenants are only obliged to put on six of these “events” a year. [14] Aside from these, the only other access offered is an annual visit during Dorset Architectural Heritage Week, and the lower floor meeting rooms and courtyard remaining available for hire. It is in these concessions that perhaps the greatest insult of the entire proposal lies: after the immense 20 year effort that the local community went through to save and renovate the building, after all the money and resources that were pumped in from public-facing bodies – from the National Heritage Lottery Fund to the Bridport Town Council – are six events, some for-hire meeting rooms, and an annual tour in any sense an acceptable offering to the community of West Dorset?

The LSi’s history is a fascinating story of genuine community will prevailing over the commercial path of least resistance. After the success of the High Court case in 2015 and the completion of the building’s renovation, it appeared to have a promising future ahead. Now, in a case of déjà vu, it seems that the commercial path has once again been reverted to. Perhaps the saddest thing of all is how many local people never even knew that this fantastic community resource existed. For those who have never been inside, the building is light, modern, and spacious and would be a perfect space for life drawing, workshops, exhibitions, or anything else one could imagine. Now, under a smokescreen of self-justifying jargon it is being taken away by a board of trustees completely content to hand it over to two private companies and one shell of a “charity” that’s only existed since March. This decision must be reversed, the promised public consultation undertaken, and a new chapter in the LSi’s history started because, as it stands, ‘the future of an iconic landmark’ looks more like a sorry end.

Update 20/10/21: The public response is no longer open as the BADT’s proposed plans went ahead. We received no response from the BADT regarding this public letter, or our follow up questions. We thank all signatories for your interest. To see the latest information and what access is available please visit the LSi website: www.lsibridport.co.uk .

This is an opinion piece by Fred Warren. This article went to print on 20/05/21 and was published online on 27/05/21. A second print run of MOOP#4 went to print on 22/07/21 with the following amendments:
Amendment 03/06/21. The original article incorrectly stated that 3DCentre does not have a website: their website can be viewed here https://3dc.org.uk/ The author apologises for this error.  
Amendment 26/06/21. The original article stated that 3DCentre will be occupying the basement. It is not currently clear where in the building it will be based.
Amendments 22/07/21. The original article contained statements about 3DC’s lack of activity prior to the BADT’s decision. These have been removed as the information around 3DC is currently unclear.

Endnotes

1. ‘PRESS RELEASE’. LSI Bridport, May 6, 2021.
http://www.lsibridport.co.uk/11800-2/

2. Bridport Area Development Trust Financial Reports. As found on the Charity Commission register. www.gov.uk/government/organisations/charity-commission

3. Quote from: ‘Lottery money and court ruling secure future for Bridport's Literary and Scientific Institute’. The Bridport News, March 25, 2015.
https://www.bridportnews.co.uk/news/11879199.lottery-money-and-court-ruling-secure-future-for-bridports-literary-and-scientific-institute/

4. ‘VIEWS SOUGHT ON PROPOSAL FOR LSI’. LSI Bridport, 14 January, 2021.
http://www.lsibridport.co.uk/views-sought-on-lsi-plan/

5 BRIGHT FUTURE FOR THE LSI’. LSI Bridport, May 2021 (exact date unspecified).
http://www.lsibridport.co.uk/11816-2/

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 ‘Shareholder Financial Update’. Crowdfunder, March 2021.

10 ‘PRESS RELEASE’. LSI Bridport, May 6, 2021.

11 ‘3DCENTRE C.I.C.’ Companies House.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13305043 Accessed 13/05/21

12 Bolton, Emily. Quoted in: ‘PRESS RELEASE’. LSI Bridport, May 6, 2021.

13 ‘PRESS RELEASE’. LSI Bridport, May 6, 2021.

14 BRIGHT FUTURE FOR THE LSI’. LSI Bridport, May 2021.