The campaign

In 2017, a crowdfunding campaign led by the council received massive support from:

  • local residents
  • philanthropists
  • businesses

The crowdfunding raised just over £460,000 towards restoring the Terrace.

The original idea for crowdfunding was put forward by residents after unsuccessful council bids for funding from government and the National Lottery.

The crowdfunding aim was to raise enough money to restore 3 arches to show how the fully restored terrace could look. We hoped it would also attract further funding for the project.

Once we’d estimated the set up and restoration costs, it became clear that ‘economies of scale’ were needed to make any restoration efforts worthwhile for all involved. 

This means it’s better value to restore more arches at once, instead of separate restorations of fewer arches.

A great success

The crowdfunding campaign attracted widespread support from local residents and businesses.

We also had backing from celebrities including:

  • local superstar DJ FatBoy Slim
  • Chris Evans
  • Eddie Izzard
  • Steve Coogan
  • Charley Boorman
  • Damon Hill

Local business support created generous and notable donations, some as high as £50,000, from a range of local businesses, charity and heritage organisations.

A raffle set up by members of the community, through the Save Madeira Terraces Raffle Group Facebook page, received more than 600 prize donations from local businesses.

The first raffle contributed just over £16,000 to the crowdfunding campaign.

Over
2,000
crowdfunders backed the campaign
Over
£460,000
raised in total

How we’ll use the crowdfunding money

The campaign raised over £460,000 in donations, which after the costs of the campaign and hosting left us with £440,000 to be spent on the first phase of the restoration project.

All money raised from the crowdfunding campaign - along with donations made to the restoration fund - are in a secure reserve fund account and will be put towards physical work to restore the Terrace.

The restoration will achieve better economies of scale by delivering a larger number of restored arches and associated staircases at any one time.

This is because one-off fixed costs do not change, but individual arch restoration costs could reduce considerably if more work is done at one time.

Based on this approach, 28 arches west of Concorde 2 have been identified for restoration in the first phase.