St. Leonard's Church
St. Leonard's Church
St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, is the ancient parish church of Shoreditch, often known simply as Shoreditch Church.
It is located at the intersection of Shoreditch High Street with Hackney Road, within the London Borough of Hackney in East London. The current building dates from about 1740 and is Grade I listed.
The church was designed by George Dance the Elder and completed in 1740. Work by Butterfield in the nineteenth century included the removal of the north and south galleries, weakening the structure.
We designed their replacements as part of a phased upgrading funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Other works included installing underfloor heating in the nave and the insertion of a lift for disabled access. The improvements to the church cost £1.95m, with English Heritage contributing 65% of total costs.
Rescuing the church also rescued two major projects: The first, was the Spitalfields Music Festival, which would have ended because of the closure of St Leonards. Instead, it has now it become an intensely community orientated festival (twice yearly) and has achieved an astonishing educational program. Secondly, The Crypt Trust was set to close but the project offered to build the Trust a new purpose-designed building with a 17 bed rehabilitation facility plus a large space for retraining experience.
Client: Diocese of London