AC Housing Project Team comes together for the first time

Nathan, Beki, Jonathan and Tash at St John’s, Hoxton

The final member of the team delivering the Archbishops’ Council Housing Project joined the project this month. Nathan Conway is the new Mapping and Grants Officer, and he will work alongside Project Manager Beki Winter and Executive Assistant Tash Jesson.

The three of them, together with Jonathan Tame from the project’s oversight committee, lost no time in visiting some sites in London where church buildings have been redeveloped to provide affordable housing or other community spaces.

The Sherriff Centre is a charity that operates a Post Office, soft play area, café, community food share and debt advice service, alongside hosting large and small events. All this takes place inside a cavernous Victorian church, St James in West Hampsted, which still holds weekly worship services in the building.  They have received numerous visitors from all over the world, coming to see what can be done with creativity and hard work to reimagine a church building.

In Dagenham, the team visited the Kingsley Hall church and community centre. The café was full, with local families, people having business discussions and even the leader of the council was holding a meeting there! Part of the site has been redeveloped into providing 32 fully affordable flats, and the first residents were moving in while the team visited. They are hoping to redevelop another part of the site to provide additional homes for local people priced out of the area.

Then in Tottenham, the team met the local archdeacon, who took them round the church of St. John the Baptist, on the busy A10 road. This was recently redeveloped to provide improved community spaces and a new block of flats was built on the land behind the church, along with a community hall and nursery.

Finally they spent time at St Johns in Hoxton, a church that has been working on plans to build some social homes on land next to the church for several years, but is still trying to overcome a number of challenges and hurdles.  The team are looking forward to working with projects like these, bringing their skills and resources to local parishes to unlock the potential for new homes and refurbished church buildings, to support the parish in its mission and ministry.  

The new vicarage at St Johns, Tottenham, next to the refurbished Church (right) and the affordable homes (behind)