The Bury St Edmunds Guildhall is a Grade 1 listed building that was gifted by the Abbey of St Edmund to the townspeople in the 13th Century – parts of it date to the second half of the 12th Century. It is located in the medieval heart of the town and the building is believed to be the oldest surviving civic building in the country.

Tricolor were appointed lead consultants by Bury St Edmunds Heritage Trust to develop their Round 2 National Lottery Heritage Fund bid to open the Guildhall as a volunteer supported heritage centre and ‘give’ the building back to the people of Bury St Edmunds after recent decades of emptiness and obscurity. As well as the activity and business planning, Tricolor developed a full interpretation strategy.

The main challenge for this project was working with an unused space with no audience data -we started with a blank canvas, developed a vital language and branding for the project. We had to first build awareness of the building before engaging the community for their views on the interpretation and opportunities for community curation.