It is wonderful to see our designs for St Luke’s Church celebrated by the Diocese of Portsmouth, featuring on their website and social platforms. We are thrilled the scheme was recently given planning permission, and we are looking forward to seeing the project start onsite later this year.
This design concentrates on the courtyard area, creating an inviting space between the church and the main road that breaks down the threshold resistance to attract the whole community in from the street. A second phase, which looks at the interior space of the church, will be looked at once this project has been completed.
The vicar, the Rev Annie McCabe, commented: “We’ve already done a lot of work to create The Host as a welcoming space for workers during the day, to repair the church roof and make the building sound, and to open up these spaces to the local community.
“We hope the work to create the courtyard, revamp the church hall and create the garden space will take place over the next three years, and give our buildings a sense of being a ‘campus’ where all sorts of groups meet.”
St Luke’s is the second church renovation and re-imagination project that we have gained planning permission for with the Diocese of Portsmouth, following on from St Margaret’s Church which had phase one completed in 2021 and we have some of their others properties on the drawing board