First the National Trust decided they might be focused too much on the middle class customers, and now English Heritage is doing the same, albeit perhaps by asking the wrong people.
The government run English Heritage look after over 400 properties around the UK as well as being a crucial part in various restoration schemes and overseeing management of such projects such as the recent Charring Cross Station upgrades in London.
Income falling:
It is the income from the properties it owns which is worrying the organisation most as funding has dropped 33%, and despite currently attracting around 11 million visitors to its properties each year, there needs to be a doubling in revenue to keep going with the current formula. In figures, English Heritage raises around £14m a year from entry charges & shops, but used to get around £130m from the treasury!
To work out if the organisation is “too stuffy” and attracting only the middle classes, it carried out a survey recently of actual members of English Heritage who pay their annual subscriptions, asking various questions especially about the name “Heritage” which the marketting department felt might be giving an olde-worlde image. The trouble with asking a select group of your membership is that these are the people who are already very enthusiastic about the organisation as it is.
So perhaps after a 2 minute brain storming within UKSeries Towers we can offer them a three pieces of free advice.
UKSeries advice to English Heritage:
1) If you want to attract more members from outside the current membership, ask the people you’re trying to attract why they would or would not visit an English Heritage property.
2) Unlike the National Trust, many English Heritage properties don’t advertise themselves as for example “English Heritage Kenwood House” but more likely simply “Kenwood House”, so the name is unlikely to seriously affect the chances of people visiting the locations.
3) It turns out many properties such as Kenwood House in London, Richmond Castle in Yorkshire and Down House (former home of Charles Darwin) in Kent don’t charge a penny for entrance. Assuming say 6 million of those visitors go to free attractions, then adding a nominal £2 charge to each one on average would come pretty close to covering the shortfall.
Conclusion: Perhaps this is a little too simplistic, but the Chief Executive Dr Simon Thurley told the Daily Telegraph in an interview that “There is absolutely no intention whatsoever of English Heritage changing its excellent and very popular name”, so at least we shouldn’t see another renaming disaster….oh no, what about the logo!?
If you love the UK (or, more specifically, London) and money is no object, you might be interested in research by Lloyds TSB (yes, you could be forgiven for thinking they might have something else to do with their time!) which identifies the 10 most expensive streets in Britain, based on average house prices. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they’re all in London and in fact 70% of them are in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Visitors to central London soon won’t need to worry about roaming charges and hotels charging for WiFi. The centre of the capital will become Europe’s largest free WiFi zone thanks to a service being provided by the mobile operator O2. It will be rolled out across the boroughs of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea in 2012, apparently at no cost to the taxpayer – a great boost ahead of the Olympic Games if it can handle the usage that that event will no doubt bring.
Dartmoor looks set to get a lot more attention this year. Coming to a screen near you from 13th January 2012 is Steven Spielberg’s movie version of the West End’s ‘War Horse’. It will show off Dartmoor’s dramatic scenery and is sure to leave many a cinema-goer wanting to see more. So, if you fancy splashing the dramatic Dartmoor scenery – where the film was shot on location – across the silver screen. Visit now, before the rest of the herd.
If you are a keen angler or simply would like to try a spot of sea fishing while on holiday, then the North Yorkshire Coast is the place to go. You really will be spoilt for choice with a whole range of fishing marks available, plenty of accommodation to choose from and alternative activities to keep the non-fishing members of your family happy. The Yorkshire Coast is an all year round fishing destination with cod, pollack and bass being typical winter catches and mackerel and ‘flatties’ available in summer.
Google has released its annual Zeitgeist – a summary of the most popular searches around the world of the world’s leading search engine. And top of the pile when it comes to the fastest rising searches of 2011, it’s the Royal Wedding. Interest in the event surpassed interest in the iPhone 5, apparently, and of course sparked interest not only in the UK, but also all across the globe.
Berwick-upon-Tweed has always been one of Northumberland’s most popular visitor destinations; in fact Nikolaus Pevsner called it one of the most exciting towns in England.
Wondering what to do between Christmas and New Year! Here’s our guide to the top 10 things to do in England:
