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      All news /Affordable Housing /Architecture /Art /Being Thrifty /Blackburn /Blog /Branding /Britain /British Culture /Charity /City /Coastal Regeneration /Community /Covid-19 /Culture /Design /Developers /Development /Eco-Friendly /Economy /Engagement /Equal Opportunities /Events /Exhibition /Family /Fashion /Festival /Globalisation /Government /Green Space /Heritage /Housebuilders /Housing /Independent Retailing /Interior Design /London /Masterplanning /Music /Placemaking /Politics /Purpose /Red or Dead /Regeneration /Retail /Shopping /Society /Sport /Staiths /Sustainability /Technology /Thrift /Town Centres /Transport /Travel /Undesirable Housing /Uniforms /Urban Design /Vintage /Vintage Festival /Wayne Hemingway
      • Blackburn is Open

        Mar 2019
        Blackburn, Britain, Charity, City, Culture, Design, Economy, Events, Festival, Independent Retailing, Placemaking, Purpose, Regeneration, Retail, Shopping, Society, Town Centres
        The definitive history of Blackburn is Open and the build up to The National Festival of Making. In 2012, we had the idea to take what Blackburn had – empty shops in prime town centre locations, an open minded Council, unused evocative buildings, strong industrial heritage, successful diaspora – and embrace these assets to start […]
      • Blackburn Green Hills is off and running

        Feb 2018
        Blackburn, Community, Developers, Development, Green Space, Housebuilders, Housing, Interior Design, Purpose
        The opportunity to design a housing development in Blackburn was something that energised Gerardine and Wayne. I often get asked for my career highlight and my answer for the past decade or so has been The Staiths South Bank in Gateshead, our first housing development. It was one of those rare projects that, despite the […]
      • In a divided Britain everybody loses

        Feb 2018
        Blackburn, Britain, British Culture, Community, Economy, Equal Opportunities, Government, Politics, Purpose, Regeneration, Society
        We can tend to be utopian but a divided society serves no-one. Britain is divided in a number of ways and if it continues then everybody will suffer. Between Remainers and Leavers, environmentalists and climate change-deniers, misogynists and feminists, the curious and the ignorant and the haves and have-nots, we’re at risk of tearing ourselves […]
      • We Were Able To Create A Fashion Label Available To All – Things Aren’t So Easy These Days

        Feb 2017
        Being Thrifty, Blackburn, Design, Events, Fashion, Festival, Independent Retailing, Placemaking, Purpose, Retail, Shopping, Society, Thrift, Vintage, Vintage Festival
        A blog about how affordable rents helped us get started and how through the markets we curate we are, in a small way, helping start-ups “have a go” by providing low cost opportunities.  I grew up in modest background to the sound of whirring sewing machines and with a mum and a nan who always […]
      • What Have Leicester City F.C. Got To Do With Hope & Social Mobility?

        Jan 2016
        Blackburn, Britain, Culture, Sport, Wayne Hemingway
        What have two much maligned places – Blackburn and Leicester – got in common? Hope through football. Like many people I root for the underdog. I rejoice when a system that increasingly favours generationally accumulated wealth is successfully negotiated by someone with fresh ideas, desire and “elbow grease”. In sport I love “Roy of The […]
      • Council Houses and Me

        Jan 2016
        Affordable Housing, Architecture, Blackburn, Britain, Design, Developers, Development, Housebuilders, Housing, Interior Design, Undesirable Housing
        Our appreciation of the history of council housing and its value to society. In 2014 I was reminded of my first Blackburn home by Sarah Thompson who emailed me with her proposal for an interiors book about ex-council houses. When someone emails you with an idea for a book about how a new generation are […]
      • They Say My Home Town is The Best In Britain…

        Aug 2015
        Blackburn, Britain, Regeneration, Town Centres
        Wayne has always loved Blackburn, the town he grew up in, and in many ways made him, where we “give back to” whenever we can. Published in the Guardian on 25th August 2015 As a Blackburnian it’s great to hear that the town has been named the best place in Britain to make a living. […]