Transforming buildings

The seaside town of Hastings sits on the south coast of England in East Sussex, its shingle and sand beaches washed by the English Channel and its buildings tumbling down towards the seafront on a series of low hills. A medieval Cinque Port, it became popular with tourists in the nineteenth century, and today still draws much of its income from visitors. Unusually for these times, it has the largest beach-based fishing fleet in the UK.

The town has many beautiful buildings in a mix of architectural styles and periods, but one of the most imposing is the mid-Victorian Holy Trinity church building designed in the Gothic Revival style so popular in the nineteenth century. With a town centre location, the ornate exterior and opulent interior so typical of its architect, Samuel Sanders Teulon, and its Grade II listing, when structural changes need to be made, many challenges present themselves. This is now occupied by a Holy Trinity Brompton church plant, which is growing fast. However, its work from the building is limited by these challenges.

Round the corner from this another mid-Victorian building of architectural interest, but thankfully not listed, is The Tabernacle. Church Growth Trust (CGT) were gifted this property in 2018 by the outgoing congregation and The Tabernacle is proving to be the answer to Holy Trinity Hastings’ prayers. Jonny Heaney, CGT’s architect, takes up the story.

“We knew that we would have to carry out works at this building to provide better access for people with disabilities. My predecessor at CGT produced a set of drawings around the beautiful front entrance porch. She faced several challenges, as this part of the building is architecturally important and we had to make sure the design was sensitive to that. Given the constraints of existing levels and limited space at the front, it would not have been possible to create a ramp through the front of the porch that complied with Building Regulations. We decided that a side entrance, with the shallow ramp running in through the side of the arch in the porch, was the most appropriate way to carry out the work. Keeping the planners happy was quite a tricky job, but working closely with them and the church, we feel happy that the building is now accessible and secured for the future.”

Before ramp

Drawing of proposed ramp

Holy Trinity Hastings (HTH) took on the tenancy of The Tabernacle, primarily to house their children’s and youth work having not been able to adapt their main building for this. They have refurbished the basement, put in a kitchen and café area and redecorated the main hall. CGT have installed an accessible WC, as well as the new ramp to ensure it is compliant with disability legislation.

Edward Gosnell and new ramp

“The work has presented quite a challenge. Post-Covid, many builders have struggled with recruiting a workforce and sourcing materials; ours was no exception. The job has taken longer than forecast as complications arose in the main hall necessitating the removal of large areas of Victorian plasterwork which had been dropping on us from above the false ceiling. However, working with Jonny has been amazing. He takes a great deal of trouble to make sure that everything runs smoothly, has visited us to keep an eye on the progress of the work and checks in with the builders on a regular basis. The design for the ramp is very much in keeping with the rest of the building. If anything, it has enhanced the look of it.”

Since HTH moved into the building, their numbers have been growing steadily. Their basement, with the original Victorian bricks, now sandblasted and cleaned, is an inviting and airy space. It is used not only for the children’s and youth work but by a number of people from the ever-growing Ukrainian community in the town, who use it to meet every week. Now the ramp, and the accessible WC are complete and in use, the entire building is accessible to everyone and fully compliant with the Equality Act. Edward is excited about the future.

“Now we have the main hall back and refurbished, we hope to be able to restore activities there with youth and kids work while also using it, as in the past, for courses such as Alpha. When the work is completed, our second Victorian building will be fit for purpose for many years to come and will continue to offer a warm, safe, engaging and compliant space to the people of Hastings.”

The basement before refurbishment...

...and aftern

John Duffield is the Property Manager at CGT and oversees the letting of the building.

“As Edward says, this was a much longer and more complex piece of work than we were expecting. The congregation of the outgoing assembly made a generous restricted gift towards the installation of the ramp, for which we were enormously grateful. We always planned to put in an accessible WC and now the ramp is in place this will be fully used. The complexity of working with a Victorian building and the challenges presented by its layout meant the siting of the ramp required an imaginative yet simple solution. Additionally, it was difficult to find an engineer qualified to assess the work needed to install it. It was also problematic finding an available builder also within budget. Before the works began, a flat roof to the rear of the building began leaking and had to be mended. However, there was good news to come from this tough situation. Holy Trinity did a wonderful job of refurbishing and redecorating the basement and recarpeting and redecorating the ground floor. Their investment has led to Hastings having a fully compliant and completely refurbished landmark building at its heart. While the project had several difficult hurdles to overcome, there was mutual professional respect throughout. CGT and Holy Trinity have worked well together to deal with these challenges, finding effective answers to a myriad of questions.”

Giles Arnold, CGT’s Chief Executive, has the final word on the latest work at The Tabernacle.

“I had worked for a number of years with the former pastor of the church, Barry Osborne, who was still a trustee of the property trust. We thought the church would continue in the building, but soon after the decision to gift the property to CGT the elders felt it was time to close. We then looked for another church to occupy the building. Holy Trinity Hastings were growing fast and because of space constraints in their building, they were searching for a place to run their children’s and youth work. We knew that the building did not meet compliance regulations. Fortunately, on either side of the porch was a gap of approximately one metre between the building and the pavement over the basement, which meant we could run a ramp along the front of the building and bring it through the railings.

This well considered design was sensitive to the architecturally important building, preserving the look of the front porch in particular and making good use of spare space. As always, Jonny worked closely with the church, taking their activities and vision into account. As John says, HTH have carried out a comprehensive programme of redecoration and refurbishment and we are all delighted with the result. CGT’s vision has always been to partner with churches in the Gospel and to help make their buildings fit for their God-given purpose.”

Church Growth Trust exists to help churches thrive and succeed in their mission work in their communities. Working in partnership with them, the aim is to ensure that church buildings continue to be used for the preaching of the Gospel and the sharing of the good news of Christ. CGT loves to see them fit for purpose and ready for the next generation, just as The Tabernacle now is.

By Ruth Leigh

Thanks to Ruth Leigh for writing this article. Ruth is a freelance writer and published author who works with a number of Christian charities