Ron’s Place patron and filmmaker Martin Wallace describes his first encounter with Ron Gittins’ larger than life-size mural of Cleopatra “oozing Liz Taylor energy” in a piece for the latest edition of Raw Vision.The magazine, which celebrates ‘outsider’ artists from around the world, dedicated three colour spreads to the Silverdale Road flat – and Martin’s…

We’re pleased to announce the appointment of Teresa Erskine to the WACCLT board. Teresa is an award-winning chartered architect and head of studio at vPPR Architects’ Liverpool studio. With extensive experience across cultural, community, arts, and heritage projects – including work on listed buildings and historic sites – she has been the driving force behind…

WACCLT will be holding its Annual General Meeting at 6pm on Wednesday, November 13 at Egerton House, Birkenhead. This is an annual gathering to share with members the work completed in 2024, as well as new developments in the coming year. Plus board member Paul Kelly will lead a discussion on Where does Wirral fit in…

We are pleased to announce that we have engaged Kate Dickson, director of Creative Heritage Consultants, as Heritage Project Organiser on the restoration of Ron’s Place. A trained architect with 25 years in the sector, Kate will bring her expertise in the conservation and creative re-use of challenging historic buildings to develop a plan for…

Central to the work of Wirral Arts and Culture Community Land Trust is the desire to developaffordable community-led housing for artists based and living in the Wirral. The house in Silverdale Road, where Ron’s Place is, will offer three flats to locally-basedartists who are looking for affordable housing. We will have two one-bedroom flats and…

In great news, we have secured funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to begin to shareand preserve Ron Gittins’ heritage. Over the next year, we will recruit and train sixvolunteers to digitise a selection of Ron’s vast archive which includes source materials forhis art, sketches, paintings, sculptured objects, photographs and handwritten notes, some insecret code….

Listing announcement – 2024 BBC One – Breakfast, 5 April BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, 5 April BBC Radio Merseyside, 5 April The Guardian, 5 April, p.9 Metro UK, 5 April, p.3 Telegraph.co.uk, 5 April BBC Online, 5 April Mail Online, 5 April Mirror.co.uk, 5 April ITV.com, 5 April Sky News, 5 April Standard.co.uk, 5…

We have some incredibly exciting news to announce: Ron’s Place has become the first Outsider Art environment to be listed in the UK. Over the past few days, we have been taking local and national media for tours of his extraordinary ground floor flat in preparation for today’s announcement. As followers of this website will…

Historic England’s Advisory Committee visits Ron’s Place Martin Wallace, Wirral Arts and Culture Community Land Trust (WACCLT) trustee and advocate for Ron’s Place reports: ”Despite the unusually snowy conditions in Birkenhead, today (16th January) I had the pleasure of showing Ron’s Place to members of the Historic England Advisory Committee (HEAC). This was a continuation of our…

WACCLT is honoured to have been nominated for the Community Land Trust Network‘s ‘All About Community’ award presented on 25 November. We’d like to congratulate the deserving winners Hastings Commons – as a relatively new organisation ourselves we can learn a lot from their hugely inspiring story.

Wirral MakeFest’s Relax and Make Christmas Green  2 December 2023, 11 – 4 at the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead The Ron’s Place team will be encouraging visitors to make collaged Christmas cards and gift tags using recycled materials, very much in the spirit of Ron. A selection of artefacts from Ron’s Place will be on…

We’re glad to report that the building containing Ron’s ground floor flat is now covered in scaffolding so that essential repairs to the roof and walls can be undertaken. This comes as a huge relief as we head into winter.  Things have felt frustratingly slow since the heady excitement (and exhaustion!) of campaigning and subsequent…

Future Yard, 75 Argyle Street, Birkenhead, CH41 6AB. Launch: 13 April, 5.30 – 8pm (RSVP below). Exhibition continues until mid May 2023. Although the doors of Ron’s Place are currently closed to the public while we hatch plans for conservation and refurbishment, we’re thrilled to announce a fabulous #InspiredByRonsPlace exhibition hosted by Future Walls Gallery at Birkenhead’s…

Just in case you haven’t heard the news:RON’S PLACE HAS BEEN SAVED!!!! We’re still a bit dazed after the thrilling events of yesterday which many of you will have read about in The Guardian or seen and heard in the news. Having handed the keys back to the landlord on Tuesday – with the horrifying…

Some of you will have seen on social media that things are a bit challenging at the moment – the owner of the building that contains Ron Gittins’ incredible art environment has decided to sell up. WE DESPERATELY NEED YOUR HELP NOW We had hoped to lease the building for a year to run some…

Get ready for IMAGINATE, a fantastic festival of art and music for all on Sunday 25 September at Birkenhead’s brilliant Future Yard in support of Ron’s Place with Bill Ryder Jones, Beija Flo, Silent K and Dancing to Architecture; spoken word from Sam Batley and Roy; exhibitions and workshops from The Caravan Gallery, Casey Orr‘s Saturday Town portrait studio, Bluecoat’s  Blue room, Convenience Gallery and Neston High School Maker Space.  Our film…

Jarvis Cocker in Conversation: Good Pop, Bad Pop Fri 30 Sep 2022 PLAYHOUSE £13 – £26 Join legendary musician and broadcaster Jarvis Cocker live in conversation to celebrate the publication of his highly regarded new book Good Pop, Bad Pop. Jarvis will be discussing his unique life, Pulp, 20th century pop culture, the good times and…

August 2022 Over the last 33 months, we have continued to raise money to pay Ron’s rent and council tax with the aim of eventually purchasing the whole building through Wirral Arts and Culture Community Land Trust, the organisation set up for this purpose with saving Ron’s Place as our flagship project. We have been…

“Legacy of colourful artist who transformed Birkenhead flat”

Friday 10th Dec saw the official launch of the Wirral Arts and Culture Community Land Trust aka WACCLT at Birkenhead’s fantastic Future Yard venue. The aim was to tell people what we are about, why they should support us by becoming members, and also to guide them to our lovely new website where we’ll keep you…

We are delighted to announce that Wayne Hemingway is now patron of WACCLT. Wayne is an English designer and co-founder of Hemingway Design and Red or Dead. He is also on the Design Council Trustee Board, and having been with the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) for a decade since its inception…

Come to our special event to celebrate the launch of WACCLT. There will be music, chat, special guests, an opportunity to talk with members of the WACCLT board and a membership offer. Find out more about our plans, how you can get involved and help us create a better Wirral through creative growth. Entrance is…

We’ve been beavering away on the new website for a while now, getting it as ready as we can in time for the launch next month. You’ll quite probably notice a couple of gaps here and there, even after it’s fully live, but we’re on it! We will be adding more content as time goes…