A community centre has been fitted inside a cavernous 19th-century church in Bolton, Lancashire, that has stood empty since 1986 (see CM, May 2014).
OMI Architects’ £4.5m project for Churches Conservation Trust has been designed not to compromise the grade II*-listed fabric of All Souls, so that, if needed, the building could revert to a church in the future.
Two steel-framed, free-standing structures, described as “buildings within a building”, have been erected by main contractor Carefoot within the large column-free nave in order to divide the church into useable spaces. These “pods”, which house offices, a kitchen, event spaces and a restaurant, had to be constructed in the manner of a “ship-in-a-bottle” owing to the church’s largest entrance being a 2m-high gothic double-doorway. All materials and machinery used on the site had to pass through this access point, a limitation that resulted in the use of prefabricated structural insulated panels to reduce the need for heavy lifting equipment.
Raised external walkways on one of the pods, and a large viewing window in the other, allow visitors to get closer to the structure, panelled roof and stained glass, elements of the original church, which have been conserved by heritage subcontractor Lambert Walker.
The listed church was built between 1878 and 1881 in the gothic revival style. It has been empty since 1986.
