One of the few Grade I-listed buildings in Hackney is getting a new lease of life.
Saint Michael and All Angels Church in Shoreditch is one of just eight buildings with the top heritage listing in the borough.
The deconsecrated church has been empty for over a year and recently served as an antiques store and showroom. It ceased serving as a church in the 1960s.
It is close to the Grade II-listed former church school and clergy house.
Mark Street Depository Limited aims to open up the space and put in a mezzanine layer and lift in the Victorian church designed by James Brooks.
The grade I-listed church was built in the 1800s.
– Credit: Design by Trehearne Architects
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More office space will also be built on a yard in nearby Leonard Street in the Shoreditch Conservation area.
Tim Gaskell from independent consultancy firm CMA Planning said the church was “undervalued and a lot of people haven’t been in there”.
He said the plans mean it will be “opened up and appreciated”.
It will also be open to the public for four days a year as part of the management conditions.
The planning committee were reassured that the building work would not compromise the church’s listed status. However, officers said the mezzanine was “harmful” but could be removed in the future.
They said the church was designed to sit alongside other buildings and the new office block would mirror 19th-century warehouses nearby.
Plans to develop the building have been given the green light by Hackney council’s planning committee.
– Credit: Design by Trehearne Architects
The scheme was unanimously agreed by Hackney’s planning committee (28 July).
St Michael and All Angels church was built in the 1860s. It shares its name with St Michael and All Angels Church in Stoke Newington Common.
Other Grade I-listed buildings in the borough include the church of St Chad in Haggerston, St Leonard in Shoreditch, St Matthias in Stoke Newington, St Columba (now Christ Apostolic Church) on Kingsland Road, the Old Tower of former Church of St Augustine on Mare Street, St Columba’s vicarage and The Museum of the Home.
St Augustine’s Tower stands in St John’s Church Gardens, in central Hackney
– Credit: Archant
St Matthias Church in Stoke Newington.
– Credit: Archant
The Old Tower is the oldest building and is all that remains of the early 16th century parish church of Hackney of St Augustine, which replaced a medieval church from the 13th century founded by catholic crusaders called the Knights of St John.
https://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/hackney-church-to-see-new-lease-of-life-8196088
