Church of St. Nicholas of Tolentino
New facilities within a 19th century church
Our client said….
Our refurbished complex now offers us and the local community excellent facilities for a whole range of meetings, work, ministry etc.”… “the first thing to strike everyone is that the church is now filled with light.
The Story
We first started working with St. Nicholas of Tolentino on 2003. The church is one of the oldest Catholic churches in Bristol, built in large part to cater for Irish refugees from the Great Famine arriving in Bristol in the late 1840s. It was built in stages between 1850 and 1873 from designs by Charles Hansom. The current parish community is drawn from over 60 nationalities, with a mission to support the poor and marginalised of Bristol’s Inner City and beyond.
In 2005 we were asked by the Parish Priest to design ‘a new parish hall’ and other facilities to support the Parish’s mission. The only available land was being sold to raise money for the new hall and other works, so we had to work within the framework of the existing 1850’s church.
We created a new parish hall within the volume of the original building. To acheive this, the church was in effect turned around, with a new main entrance at the former sanctuary end. A column was removed and the new clear-span hall accommodated within the last two bays of the church.
A new mezzanine floor above the hall, and an infill side extension provided further space.
The remodelling of the church included a complete re-ordering of the worship space, with a new baptismal pool and centre facing seating. The church interior now represents the parish’s wide range of cultures, with the original classic Victorian English church and its beautiful stained glass windows now augmented with some very striking colours and carvings from Africa and India.
Externally, the extension echos the form and materials of the Victorian building, and provides a new facade to Lawfords Gate.
The ‘new church’ was returned to the parish for Christmas 2009 with great celebrations.
The church is now the centre for the “Borderlands” charity and all the facilities are intensively used by the whole local community.
The project was funded by the sale of adjacent land for housing - a project which we undertook in the years after the work to the church building.
The project was awarded a Bristol Civic Society Environmental Award, and we have since undertaken further work to the adjacent parish centre.
The project was funded by the sale of adjacent land for housing - a project which we undertook in the years after the work to the church building.
The project was awarded a Bristol Civic Society Environmental Award, and we have since undertaken further work to the adjacent parish centre.
Project Team:
Client: Parish of St. Nicholas of Tolentino with Clifton Catholic Diocesan Trustees
Planning Consultant: CSJ Planning
Consulting structural & civil engineers: Craddys
Consulting services engineers: Watermans
Contractor: K P Wilton