The new Christ Church, Sparkbrook https://www.christchurchsparkbrook.org.uk/
Despite the lockdown, churches are keeping an eye on the task of making the best of existing buildings or replacing them altogether. There is nothing going on resembling the multifarious new church building projects of the sixties but schemes for fixing, improving and adapting buildings are evident.
St Thomas’s, Lancaster has a £3.6m scheme for constructing a brand-new church centre on two floors alongside a reshaping of the interior of the parish church. The congregation has already pledged and raised £2m for a project that will benefit the city centre and the day-to-day needs of some of its citizens. The Vicar, Jon Scamman, says God is calling St Thomas’s people to invest in a project that will give a new look to a church that is bursting at the seams.
Following the devastating effect of a tornado in 2005 that resulted in the loss of its Victorian church building, Christ Church Sparkbrook, Birmingham has since 2012 had the benefit of a new building that does not look out of place in the 21st century. In terms of glass and space it has more in common with a new airport building than a medieval church. It is a two-storey building incorporating a hall, café, rooms and has landscaped car-parking.
In 2007 the church of St John’s, Drypool, Hull received significant investment that has transformed the interior of this 1917 building. It now presents a high-end style of lay-out and furnishings. The result is a church centre with scope for both worship and activities such as money management advice, not to mention a community garden. St John’s has a team vicar, Martyn Westby, and is allied with St Columba’s and a third church. The team rector is Dave Griffith-Jones.
If there is one thing that is a litmus test of good church design it is the place of toilets in the scheme. Parishioners of what was, before urbanisation, the old village church of St James, Mangotsfield, Bristol found themselves embarrassed by the lack of any provision. Giving thought to this, they began contemplating a renovation of the building. As the Vicar, Teresa Taylor, explains, that morphed into new flooring, heating system, lighting, kitchen area, refurbished vestry and external works. All this is happening in the 800th year of the church.
Led by its vicar, Alan Bing, Ulverston parish church is plunging into a £1.4 restoration project. It is tackling the humdrum but nonetheless essential task of maintenance work on another 800-year-old building. Well-intentioned but ill-advised repair work 100 years ago – the replacement of lime-mortar by cement, for example – has aggravated the problem facing the present generation. The aim now is to make the church a suitable place for worship and for service to the community.
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