St Michael's Church Community Centre

The Church Community Centre, including a large hall, kitchen, music rooms and flower arranging space, was the first phase of an overall development plan, submitted as part of our competition winning scheme in 2002. It was built up against the largely unaltered external brick wall of the existing church which remains legible from within the new building. The hall has linear rooflights each side, from which light washes down into the space below. It opens out onto the newly built cloister courtyard, allowing nursery, exercise classes and wedding receptions to spill out into the open but secure space. The materials used for the project were chosen firstly for longevity (brick, lead and stone) but also to sit well with the materials of the existing church. We created a custom terracotta tile frieze to sit alongside the lovely terracotta tile detail of the adjacent Victorian building and we had a special ‘St. Michael’ pressed brick manufactured to match as closely as possible that of the existing church.