New lease of life for historic Hull landmark
£1M MAKEOVER AT CHURCH IS ONGOING
A STUNNING facelift scheme turning a former Hull church into a community hub has reached its halfway stage.
Having spent almost 40 years buying and renovating run-down residential properties to eventually rent out in west Hull, housing charity Giroscope say the ongoing makeover at the old St Matthews Church at the corner of Boulevard and Anlaby Road represents its greatest challenge yet.
The grade-two listed building dates from 1870 and is the only surviving Victorian Anglican church building in Hull with a spire. It had not been used as a church for seven years when the charity acquired it from the Church of England in 2018.
Girsoscope co-founder and coordinator Martin Newman said: “I think even we underestimated how special this place is to people.
“Since we started the work, we’ve had a steady stream of people popping in saying things like ‘we got married here’ or ‘this is where we had our Nan’s funeral.’
“We wanted to develop a plan for the building that would bring it back into practical use but at the same time keep the spectacular space of the interior of the building. We also had to comply with modern building regulations, flood and fire rules, at the same time as working within listed building consent with any new design ideas that we brought forward.”
The facelift project is costing just under £1m with nearly half that amount being met from Hull’s Community-led Local Development programme via one of the last large European Structural Investment Fund grants to be awarded in the city following
Brexit. Other funding has come from the Architectural Heritage Fund and, more recently, the Garfield Weston Foundation.
A first major step was reinstallation of the church’s large stained glass war memorial western window, which had been in storage in York. The window is unusual because it includes contemporary military figures among more traditional religious imagery.
“I think when we told the council’s conservation officer about our plans to repair and restore the window, he suddenly got where we were coming from,” said Mr Newman.
“After lots of consultation with a wide range of people we decided to install mezzanines down each aisle. This gives us the space to construct seven office work rooms, which will be available to rent.”
Construction work being carried out by the charity’s regular contractors started in January and the project is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The mezzanines are now in place and work to fit out the offices is ongoing alongside the construction of a new lift shaft.
Elsewhere, a completely new floor has been laid above an underfloor heating system while there are plans to add rooftop solar panels and a new internal access to inside the spire.
Unusually, the current access is on the outside of the church.
“Eventually, people will be able to go up the spire and enjoy the view. There’s still a bell up there but we’ve been advised not to try ringing it because it might fall off and end up doing a bit of damage,” said Mr Newman.
The original vestry is set to be converted into a meeting room, new toilets and washroom are being created while the addition of a modern kitchen will allow the venue to host a daytime café and cater for evening events.
“Our intention is to bring the building back into use starting with the stunning first floor office spaces for businesses and community enterprises looking to relocate. We will also maintain access to the building for the wider community, allowing people to visit the war memorial tablets and windows, take a trip up the tower or just sit and have a coffee and some food.
“We are creating space for people to co-work with plenty of space and superfast wifi. The vestry and the chancel are being developed into meeting rooms to suit all needs and purposes and we’re also looking to create smaller breakout spaces within the building.”
Before the work started, the charity had used the building for storing furniture while it also hosted a number of pop-up markets.
Mr Newman said: “It creates a temporary use while giving us the time to fundraise and plan for a more developed, permanent use for a property. Sadly, you see a lot of buildings which have been empty for years and start getting into a right old state.
“You just know that in the majority of these cases, it’s usually someone out of town, has seen something ridiculously cheap at auction, only to discover there are a whole load of hidden problems with it. We take the opposite approach and it works.”