AHF50 – Architecture Heritage Fund

To mark their 50th anniversary celebrations, the AHF will host a special touring exhibition across the UK this year. Made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Architectural Heritage Fund: 50 Years of Reimagining Heritage will showcase the work of the organisation across People, Place and Heritage at The Briggait in Glasgow, following its inaugural opening in Northern Ireland in February.

Since its foundation in 1976, the AHF has supported 2,432 projects in the UK, with their 1000th loan awarded in March 2026 as well as 3,079 grants. The combined total of financial support awarded to projects in towns, cities and the countryside currently sits at £182,060,862. The anniversary programme will shine a light on AHF-supported projects in every nation and region of the UK, culminating in a celebration of a top 50 projects that demonstrate the enduring power of heritage-led regeneration.

In Scotland, the AHF has made 1,052 funding offers, totalling £43.6 million of investment. This includes 840 grant offers, totalling £8.2 million, and 183 loan offers, totalling £34.8 million, to 426 organisations developing 629 historic buildings projects, benefitting people in every single local authority area across Scotland.

The exhibition venue, The Briggait, is an AHF supported project and a thriving cultural hub in an historic A-Listed market hall complex in Glasgow’s City Centre. Dating back to 1873, The Briggait is the largest complex of Victorian-era halls in Scotland and is also headquarters for Wasps Studios.

After Glasgow, the exhibition will go on to tour Cardiff (June) and London (October) over the course of the year. Each exhibition will highlight outstanding local projects and the people behind them, with the Glasgow leg including nine Scottish projects: Former Grange Free Church (Above Adventure), Kerrera Old School, Leith Theatre, The Briggait, Fairfield Shipyard, Old Sail Loft Shetland, Ardnamurchan Lighthouse, Law’s Close Fife, City Observatory Edinburgh.  

As well as giving visitors a chance to engage with the AHF’s nationwide work restoring historic buildings and supporting communities – from Jubilee Pool in Penzance, Cromford Mills in Derbyshire, Collective Gallery Edinburgh and Cardigan Market Hall – the exhibition wants to ask questions about the role of restoration in today’s society and the future of heritage in the UK.