St. John’s Waterloo
St. John’s Waterloo
We provided conservation and structural engineering input for the £4.5m renovation of this Grade II* listed church. The church was built in 1824 and suffered serious damage during the Second World War, but in 1951 received a new lease of life as the Festival of Britain church.
Our heritage and structural engineering team worked with key project stakeholders to develop a brief and responsive set of proposals that addressed the church’s key ambitions of inclusivity, creativity and openness to make the building fit for the 21st Century. This aimed to balance the daily life of the church with cultural, charitable and commercial activities within the main worship space and crypt.
Working with Eric Parry Architects, we improved accessibility and the functioning of the church as a liturgical space. Through our assessment of significance and through consultation, our conservation team helped to achieve faculty consent for a new lift and feature stair in order to improve access to the crypt. Our structural design included alterations to accommodate a new lift which provided improved access to the crypt, where we helped to create a variety of new spaces for community use and hire. In doing so, the work has revealed the beauty of the brick vaults and cleaned and restored a long, vaulted chamber. In the nave, we helped to resolve the loading and stability for unusual, sculptural, timber screens in the nave. These required detailed structural advice on their construction, assembly and placement.
We supported our client in taking major steps to move St John’s towards the Church of England’s target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. Solar energy use was integrated into design from the outset, with a major installation of 80 solar panels covering almost all the south-facing roof, with the capacity to generate a potential 30 kWh in bright sunshine.
The project involved extensive consultation with a diverse set of stakeholders, including key community, statutory and local interest groups, Historic England, Twentieth Century Society, Lambeth Borough Council and the Church Buildings Council. The project received the Presidents’ Medal at the Church Architecture Awards.
Client: St. John’s Waterloo
Architect: Eric Parry Architects