This symposium was held to address the question ‘What is the
purpose of church buildings in the twenty first century?’ This theme served as an introduction to the proposed
improvements of
St Mary Redcliffe (SMR) and for invited speakers to offer
their views on the project.
The Reverend Dan
Tyndall, Vicar of St Mary Redcliffe
Dan Tyndall explained how the proposal to redevelop SMR is
intended to improve outdated facilities with beautiful design that complements and
respects the existing architectural heritage, integrates the church better into
its surrounding landscape and helps to fulfil its mission of Christian outreach
at the heart of the local community. This
plan is developing in parallel with a proposal by the Redcliffe Development
Neighbourhood Forum (www.redcliffeforum.org.uk)
to reunite north and south Redcliffe, currently divided by a dual carriageway, and
develop a ‘mixed-use neighbourhood around a ‘grand boulevard’ on the north side
of SMR. Similar plans were first
proposed in 1966!
Proceedings started with a pre-recorded video introduction
from Mayor George Ferguson. He was
enthusiastic about the redevelopment, but felt it was a shame SMR was built on
a roundabout…
Dan Tyndall described how SMR is in effect open-plan, the
church being one big room with smaller rooms below; therefore functional space
was more limited than it might appear. An under croft housing a café, meeting spaces
and toilets was built in the 1970s but is in great need of updating.
He went on to explain that SMR is located on a fault-line
between wealthy north and west Bristol and relatively impoverished communities
south and east of the Avon. Local neighbours
also need to be considered, as SMR is surrounded by high-rise flats, offices, a
hotel, expensive apartments and busy roads.
Redevelopment must ensure that SMR does not only improve its facilities,
but fulfils its greater purpose of being at the heart of these different communities
and a bridge between them.
SMR launched a competition in 2015 with the assistance of
Malcolm Reading Consultants to invite architects to tenders solutions to SMR’s
needs. The accepted proposal will form part of a HLF bid for project funding,
estimated at £12M–£15M. 50 practices submitted
bids, shortlisted are:
- Carmody Groarke
- dRMM
- Eric Parry Architects
- Feilden Clegg Bradley
Studios
- Purcell
The winning submission will be decided on 24th
May 2016.
Jon Cannon –
Journalist, Author, Broadcaster and Architectural Historian
Jon Cannon described Redcliffe as a planned ‘new town’ on
the edge of the old city in the 12th century, when medieval Bristol
was incredibly cosmopolitan compared to the rest of the UK outside London; the
Shanghai or New York of its time. SMR
was a landmark, one of the two biggest buildings in Bristol, the other being St
Augustine’s Abbey/Bristol Cathedral.
Built just outside the city walls, SMR’s location
established the fault-line mentioned by Dan Tyndall in separating city and
country, wealth and poverty. SMR’s prominence
diminished as it progressively became ‘unstitched’ from the local landscape as change
came with the removal of the city wall, the development of Queen’s Square (18th
C) Temple Meads (1840s), followed by developments of offices and flats (1960s
& 1970s), dual carriageway and ‘temporary’ flyover (1967) and roundabout (1998).
Approached from the city via Redcliff Street (the only
possible route prior to Redcliffe Way being built in the 1940s), the north-west
view of SMR is dramatic, with the entrance porch five metres above ground
level, and the imposing tower (and later spire) rising above.
showing
the incomplete spire of St Mary Redcliffe
SMR’s high vaulted roof is unique for a parish church. It was built to one design in one phase and
is a simple structure; hence the ‘open plan’ nature. Jon explained how today the architecture marries
only the 14th and 19th centuries, as Victorian ‘improvements’
sucked 300 years of history out of SMR.
Jon Cannon has just finished writing a gazette about the
north-west porch, which he described as a ‘valve’ between the city and the
church; the secular and sacred. A
hexagonal structure with a 12th century inner porch, this pilgrimage
site has a chapel built into the porch wall that once housed a shrine to St
Mary. Originally the exterior was
adorned with 50 statues, but only a few remain today.
Jon described how churches occupy an unusual position in
society, meeting no practical daily needs, yet special because a church
embodies the history, beliefs and identity of its community. In the 1840s a statue was erected to Thomas
Chatterton outside the north-west porch.
When his forgeries were revealed the statue was removed.
Thomas Chatterton statue
1840
Jon went on to give an example of how the divide between the
secular and the religious can be bridged on a heritage site with sensitive
interpretation, attention to detail and excellent execution.
The Refectory at Norwich
Cathedral, an excellent example
of successfully marrying new
build and heritage.
In 2004 Hopkins Architects designed a new café that offers
an attractive contrast and a sense of welcome and community to this 11th
century structure, in a part of the cathedral estate that had been defunct for
500 years. The design works with the
grain of the past, e.g. ancient doorways have been ‘reactivated’ and does not
interfere visually or structurally with the heritage aspects of the site.
Great care was taken to be ambitious and open up new
possibilities, while at the same time aiming for subtlety and an approach of
“less is more”. This is one of only a tiny
handful of examples where modern and heritage design have successfully
combined.
Right Reverend Nick
Holtham, Bishop of Salisbury, formerly Vicar of St Martin in the Fields (SMF)
The bishop attended the Paris climate change summit and drew
a parallel between Bristol’s year as European Green Capital and an appreciation
of spirituality. He also mentioned
feeling upset that Simon Jenkins’ book of English Churches gave SMR five stars
while SMF only got three!
He described how SMF was designed and built as a classic
temple by Gibbons in the 1720’s and at the time was considered extravagant,
costing £36,000 to build compared to St Giles costing £8,000.
When Nick Holtham became vicar of SMF in 1995 the church was
in a bad state of disrepair. A former
vicar Austen Williams once said the Angel of Death has been kind to SMF in the
form of bequests, but he had never sought significant donations. A later vicar Canon Geoffrey Brown was more
commercially minded and set up a market and café, but the church continued to
deteriorate.
In 1998 a campaign was launched to raise funds for essential
capital investment.
From his experience the bishop felt good stewardship and thinking
about future as well as present capacity, and needs not just in a current
timeframe but 100 years ahead is vital.
He said it took him years to understand the building at SMF and that developing
this deep understanding is essential to draw out the ‘golden threads’ for any
heritage project, saying “a church with a history has a future”.
Marrying ethics with aesthetics is central to SMF’s
conception of itself, what is good is also beautiful and vice versa. Consequently the pulpit was moved to improve
sightlines and artists in residence commissioned to raise awareness by
producing beautiful work such as the redesigned East Window. But realism was needed as budget constraints dictated
the removal of some desired changes.
Money was raised from a wide range of sources including the
HLF where, prior to delivery, the seven volume application was blessed by the
Bishop of London on Epiphany Sunday. Key
lessons were to involve external stakeholders as early as possible in the
process and engage them as allies; forestalling the risk of them becoming
obstructive critics. Also, to build the
necessary capacity to execute the project by having an efficient board
structure, clear reporting lines and proactively building desire and
understanding of the need for change.
Having a real estate professional as a partner was vital in helping to
fund the project and in access to professional expertise and networks.
‘Brand recognition’ of the redevelopment was also critical to
success. A local design company produced
a tagline of “At the Heart” with a logo depicting the church. This later changed to an image of a ragged
cloak (reference St Martin tearing his cloak in two to clothe a beggar). The
bishop was unapologetic in saying all churches needed to pay their way
financially as well as in their value to the community, and describing churches
as assets in real estate as well as community terms.
There were at least five occasions when he thought it likely
the project would fail for lack of funds and, as the crypt was uncovered, may
result in “the largest open-air swimming pool in central London”. The greatest compliment and mark of success
received at the project’s conclusion was when parishioners stood in the nave
and asked “what’s different?” The Church
and bishop have since been criticised for ultimately spending over £36M in
redeveloping SMF, although as he pointed out, this was less than one half of
Ronaldo’s value as a professional footballer at £80M. We spend money on what we believe is worth
spending money on…
Andrew Kelly,
Director of Bristol Cultural Development Partnership
Andrew gave an account of the work of the BCDP, see www.IdeasFestival.org.uk
In relation to SMR and engagement with spiritual as well as
cultural themes, Andrew referred to the Partnership’s record, e.g. Bristol’s
Capital of Culture bid, successful European Green Capital 2015 bid,
commemoration of World War One, walking tours of sacred Bristol as part of the
Festival of Future Cities and an event celebrating Bristol as home of the 19th
century Romantic Poets movement.
The BCDP future programme includes themes of poetry, art,
revolution, peace and, in 2018, the commemoration of the end of World War One. There will be a renewed bid for Capital of
Culture in 2023 and events celebrating The Age of Reason. He described how BCDP would like to see
Bristol promoted as a ‘City of Churches’.
For the next Festival of the Future City in October 2017 they are
interested in hosting speakers and debates around the role of churches in the built
environment and how to return the church to civic prominence.
BCDP is also engaged with Salaam – Shalom (www.salaamshalom.org.uk), an
organisation promoting multi-cultural, multi-faith dialogue and understanding
through arts and other events.
Andrew made the observation that while BCDP had always
received great support and engagement with local authorities in Bristol, there is
often resistance in the ‘hinterland’ areas of the former county of Avon; perhaps
due to a fear of being overwhelmed or subsumed by ‘Big Brother’ Bristol.
Loyd Grossman, Chair
of the Churches Conservation Trust
Loyd said he prefers CCT’s 347 churches to be described as
underused assets and not redundant buildings.
New uses must respect these consecrated places of worship, but
interpretation of what is appropriate needs to be broad, not narrow, e.g. one
CCT church has a skateboard area. Loyd explained appropriate use was not a new
concern, e.g. there is a CCT church where gates were installed to prevent
locals using the nave for cock-fighting!
I don’t think this was recently….
He observed that the Church Commissioners in effect run a
pension fund. Ultimately the CCT
portfolio is held in trust for the public, who need to contribute and share
responsibility for managing it. When CCT
was founded the average visitor donation was £0.07; today CCT asks for a
suggested donation of £1.00, and aspires to £3.00. He went on to describe a couple of
significant meta-trends:
- The retreat, which he
believes is permanent, of the State from funding heritage projects
- The democratisation of
deciding what defines heritage.
Thanks to social media sites, e.g. TripAdvisor, the public are no
longer passive consumers of expert opinion , e.g. Pevsner
Loyd felt engagement of new visitors is best achieved
through personal contact. The public
need to be persuaded to come through the door the first time so they can
develop an emotional connection to a site and want to return and to recommend
it. CCT needs to help the public
overcome apathy or any sense of exclusion because they are not religious. We can achieve this through educational
outreach, especially to young people.
Sentimentalising or ‘dumbing down’ heritage is to be avoided.
Examples of successful reuse of churches included All Souls
in Bolton, where the local immigrant community were engaged in developing it
into a new community and business advice centre. Holy Trinity in Sunderland, located in an
area of social deprivation, has been transformed into a young persons’ centre
called “Canny Space”. While in Ipswich,
St Mary’s Quay has been transformed into a wellness centre in collaboration
with the mental health charity MIND. A
further example is St Paul’s in Portland Square, Bristol which partnered with
Circomedia to create a circus skills school.
Collaborative partnerships like these enable successful CCT
projects, working with other charities, the private sector, local communities,
Friends Groups, HLF, and potential funders such as trusts.
Loyd described how rural churches are the most at risk, with
circa 2,000 having fewer than 10 parishioners attending. However evidence from www.frh-europe.org showed that all
churches were safer from dereliction and vandalism when kept open, not closed
up. The loss of post offices, pubs,
shops and public transport has created a poverty of public space in rural
communities. The imaginative reuse of
underused churches can offer a solution, getting locals through the door for
their daily needs, while at the same time enabling them to engage with their
community’s heritage.
A questioner asked why CCT churches were not used for
weddings. Loyd explained Church
bureaucracy made the process too difficult.
He lamented this situation, giving an example of All Saints Church,
Billesley, Warwickshire, a rumoured venue for William Shakespeare and Anne
Hathaway’s wedding in 1582. Despite the
boost this site could offer CCT’s profile as a wedding venue, it was not feasible. Meanwhile, the fairly ordinary hotel opposite
is licensed for weddings!
In finishing, Loyd said society has moved on from when
Victorian factory owners could make attendance at church mandatory for
employees. The supply-side approach of
“build it and they will come” of that era has been supplanted by the
demand-side question of “what do people want?”
CCT can help provide the answer through access to heritage
and beauty; our priority must be – get them through the door!
Stephen Carroll
Volunteer – Historical Research Group
St John the Baptist Church
Bristol
29/02/16
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