In the eighth of a series of articles, Revd James Gilder of Wanstead Parish explains plans for a Heritage Lottery Fund bid to repair the tower of Christ Church, which is struggling to stay upright
Thanks to everyone who has dropped in to see us since we started opening Christ Church every weekday from 9am to 3pm. It’s really lovely that so many people pop their head through the door, often to have a bit of peace and quiet in the middle of a busy day. I would say that Christ Church offers a cool haven from the heat, but it’s been more of a roof against the rain this year!
Many people in Wanstead have a connection with Christ Church. Maybe they were christened here, married here, or attended funerals here. For a church which is actually pretty well hidden from the High Street, it is a very well-known local landmark, and a constant in the lives of many Wanstead folk.
Sadly, Christ Church is under threat. Having been built in mid-Victorian times (and, unfortunately, having been built slightly on the cheap!) the building is showing its age – particularly the glorious tower and spire, where the coping stones on the buttresses are now struggling to keep the weight of the tower upright. Did you know that Christ Church’s tower is actually built of London brick? Its stone cladding is really just an elaborate facade, designed to make it look more ancient than it is! Unfortunately, the stone that was used has been eroded by the weather (and not helped by some bad repair work in the 1950s, which used the wrong cement), and all this means we are looking to find £600,000 just to keep the tower in one piece. This is a very daunting sum of money for a voluntary organisation to find – and what we are hoping to do is apply to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for help.
Unfortunately, the HLF ends up with far more bids than they can possibly support – so we need to put together a really good bid to ensure we get the cash. The HLF will only give churches money if the project benefits the wider community too, and that’s fair enough. So, we are looking at finding ways of altering the nave interior to be more flexible, so it can also be used by community groups during the week. The plan is to preserve the very best of the existing interior – everything in the chancel and the lady chapel would remain exactly the same, for example – whilst brightening up the back of the church and creating some new usable space, with better heating, lighting and access.
It’s quite exciting (and a bit daunting) and I’m really pleased that lots of people from the community have already come forward to help, because whilst change to a building we love is always hard, there does seem to be a general recognition that, if we don’t act now, there is sadly a possibility we won’t have this lovely building at all in 10 years’ time. If you would like to be involved in helping with this project, please do let us know – we’d be very happy to hear from you!
To contact Reverend James Gilder, email wansteadparishadmin@uwclub.net
