The Building

Lanternhouse is a unique building that brings together artists and our local community in Ulverston as well as people from further afield. Lanternhouse was specially created for artists, curators and creative thinkers to research, develop and create new work.

The building was originally built as the National School for Ulverston in 1834 and was built by public subscription. It was a school - housing girls and boys in separate buildings - until the mid-1930s. Following its years as a school, the building's history was a rich and diverse one; it was the local Labour Exchange, a storage centre for ordnance survey maps and a Post Office garage. It was home to Welfare State International, the groundbreaking maverick group of artists and thinkers founded by John Fox, Sue Gill and Roger Coleman and others, from 1987–2004.

The building in its current architectural form opened in 1996 after an extensive re-design by architect Francis B Roberts, funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, in collaboration with Welfare State International. The building was developed around the Cruck Barn, a large space that had been developed by a team of 60 volunteers, four years before in 1992. The barn was built using traditional building techniques (except for a chainsaw and a crane) and contains 250 oak pegs, and timber from the shores of Windermere.

"Lanternhouse is an intriguing building that invites exploration."

The building effortlessly combines the old school building with its limestone walls, lead encased windows and slate tiled roofs with newer elements like a wall of glass bricks, terracotta painted turrets and tower, one finished off with a 29-foot blue steel lattice tower, which cradles a satellite dish, created by Jamie McCullough. Lanternhouse is an intriguing building that invites exploration.

Lanternhouse was envisioned as a place for artists and at every turn, you can see the work of artists and craftspeople - bespoke furniture including hand crafted kitchen units, an installation in the lift and hand made earthenware tiles on the floor make for a unique creative environment.

"This is a building which simply has to be seen to be appreciated."

The building was award winning. It received a North West Civic Trust Award in 2001. In its RIBA Award citation of 2000, the judges commented: 'This is a building which simply has to be seen to be appreciated'. The special artisan nature of many of the fixtures and fittings - from curtain and towel rails, wash stands, beds, baby-changing units to coat stands and loo roll holders - was singled out by RIBA for special praise: 'The hand of these artists is evident in every conceivable detail... The building was a joy to visit'.

During the building project in 1996, there was a very clear commitment to make the building as sustainable as possible working to the ideas of the 3 Rs - reduce, reuse and recycle. The boiler is energy efficient and the building is well insulated. Some of the sustainable innovations were at the cutting edge of the time. For instance, Lanternhouse had a rainwater harvesting system well before this became fashionable. The rainwater harvesting system collects run off to feed some of our plumbing system - this reduces our use of mains water by harnessing the natural resource of rain - there is plenty of this in Cumbria!

"We don't like to waste, we like to make."

Natural materials were used throughout the building, from the oak crucks in the barn to hand made tiles on floors and on walls. The use of reclaimed and reused materials is one of the themes of the building. For example, the kitchen-diner features reused oak beams, reclaimed from the original 1830s school house, converted into seating; wood from the shores of Lake Windermere became crucks of the barn space and a shower splash back is made from recycled plastics.

This commitment to our environment continues to this day. We are committed re-users and up-cyclers; schemes like our hack lab for young people where old and obsolete IT equipment has found innovative new uses; our up-cycled furniture scheme; our Bike Loan scheme and our scrap store membership demonstrate that we don't like to waste, we like to make.

Lanternhouse was made possible by the support of a National Lottery award from Arts Council England.