Church grants

Church

St Mary’s Hornsey Rise, Ashley Road London N19 3AD

Designation

Grade II listed

Total project cost

£96,000

Cloudesley grant

£40,000

Other funding

Church funds: £29,000 fundraising and £7,000 reserves

Garfield Weston: £5,000

VAT reclaim from LPOWS: £15,000            

Dates

Need identified: First discussed at PCC Jan 2017  

Fundraising & permission: Autumn 2017               

Work started: June 2018

Work finished: December 2018

Contractors used

Architect: Eleni Makri

Builders: Brittovia

Background

The toilets and drainage at St Mary Hornsey Rise needed to be completely stripped out, new plumbing installed, and new toilets fitted, in order to deal with significant maintenance issues (including toilets regularly not working, and a partial collapse of the floor in the ladies’ toilets) and to meet legislation for accessible toilets. 

With the advice of their architect, and consultation with church users, they reached a design that reused the existing floor space but with an entirely new layout.  The new design has 1 accessible toilet and 4 non-gendered toilets (in individual cubicles) with a run of sinks along the window. The work included a new interior wall to the church and a new internal door. The existing false ceiling was removed, and the new toilets have the full ceiling height.

Three quotes for the work were gained, and Brittovia was chosen because they were the most responsive when the detailed plans were being developed and could explain each element of the costing.  They were not the cheapest originally, but by slightly changing the cubicle design they were able to match the costs of the others.

St Mary’s began fundraising; lead by the vicar with support from volunteers.  There were two grants, one from Cloudesley and one from Garfield Weston, plus an unsuccessful application to National Churches Trust.  There were several fundraising events, such as a dinner, a games night in church and a sponsored walk (wrapped in toilet paper!) and regular appeals in church.

Benefits

Having working toilets is basic requirement for a church, helping all church activities to continue.  In addition to Sunday and mid-week worship, the toilets allow for a programme of community events, and allows all the wider church activities to continue, such as the foodbank, and children & families work.

The church will be fit-for-purpose to let out, and so, in time, income will increase.

Challenges

Once the work began onsite, the floor was opened up, and it was discovered that all the joists were rotten through.  The entire floor had to be lifted and the joists replaced.  This used all of the 10% budget contingency that had been built in, and more. The architect worked with the builder to find savings, for example dropping the planned underfloor heating in favour of radiators.  These changes meant the project, whilst delayed by 3 months, managed to complete on budget.

Fitting the automatic, disabled-access door proved to be very problematic, and in the end was not possible.  The doorway is arched, so the mechanism cannot be fitted at the top, and there is insufficient room in the cavity under the floor boards to install the mechanism below.

Fundraising is always a challenge.  It was overcome here through an extensive fundraising campaign and by growing the confidence of church volunteers to deliver events.  Instead of seeing toilet refurbishment as a boring project, the opportunity for toilet humour was made the most of, to engage the congregation in fun ways.

Top tips for other churches

Having non-gendered toilets just wasn’t an issue.  Present the congregation with different designs and engage them in the chosen solution.

Engage the congregation in fundraising, get them into teams having fun organising events. Some simple things were successful, such as a games night.  The sponsored walk alone raised around £4,000.

Build in a contingency to the budget. Some grant funders allow this to be part of your project costs, including Cloudesley and Garfield Weston.

Plan for it to take longer than you think.  Add two months at least.  Allow some other church activities to stop, to give you capacity.  (Use it as a good chance to review them.)  Be realistic about the pace at which you can work.

Don’t be afraid of writing funding bids and be realistic that they won’t all succeed.

Keep communicating with the congregation and church users, even when things are going wrong. Reassure them that you will still get to the end goal.

The Cloudesley perspective – why did this project gain support?

Although the application was for a significant amount, it made up less than 50% of the proposed total budget. Not all of the funds were secured at the time of the application, but the church provided a clear and realistic plan to raise the balance.

The church was able to describe the different options that had been considered and why the proposed plans were the most suitable solution for them. It was apparent that they had developed a good relationship with their architect who was able to meet their brief, oversee the works, and rework the plans as necessary. 

During site visits to the church it became clear that the project had the full support of the congregation. The need for the work was clear, and the leadership ensured that the congregation were consulted and regularly updated.

Photo provided by St Mary’s Hornsey Rise