The small church and community centre of St. John on the Elsinge estate had been built in the 1950s to serve the local area of a new housing estate. It had flourished, with extensive youth work, but over the years had become a small worshipping congregation who rented out the premises to other groups, including a pre-school, uniformed youth organisations, an art class and a choir.

As all churches have to do, the trustees had a quinquennial inspection of the property which resulted in a report that required repairs, mainly to the roof, that were estimated at £140,000.  At that time the membership of the church totalled 11 with financial reserves of £12,000.

A vision began to develop of revitalising the original intention of serving the community.

Research into the current nature of the Elsinge estate uncovered serious needs within the area. The community is predominantly white with significant groups of Turkish origin and African/Caribbean.  There are higher than average numbers of young families, 22% in single-parent households.  The housing is mostly rented from the council or housing association with a predominance of terraced houses and flats, 46% in social housing against a national average of 18%.

There are significant numbers of people with no (30%) or few (40%) educational qualifications and unemployment rates are high. The proportion of households with an income of less than £15,000 pa is 25.3% and 18% claimed out of work benefits.  46.69% of children in the ward are judged to be living in poverty. (DATA FROM Enfield Council and Child Poverty Action Group)

But we began to take a different view – what if we looked not at the needs of the community, that we had so few resources to attempt to meet, but considered instead the rich resource in the gifts and skills inherent in the diversity of the residents? Could we offer the space and encouragement for people to thrive, to further social cohesion, to develop their own visions and create their own future?

The challenge was     

• To find financial resources to consider refurbishment or rebuilding
• To persuade local trustees to share the vision of a project which was not primarily about making new members of the church
• To persuade the local community that we were serious

The local community is not one entity, but is diverse in ethnicity and culture, a mix of some long-stay families, but many more transient who are here not by choice but because it is the only offer of a cheaper home. It is on the edge of London, bounded by busy roads (A10, M25) and railway line.  Other churches have closed, the Children’s Centre has been closed, the only other community hall has priced itself beyond the means of local residents, the small local library opens two days a week and is run by volunteers.

The original intention was to simply replace the old hall with a cheap modular building, but in discussion with the local council it became obvious that planning issues would be greatly facilitated by having an architect involved.

We looked for an architect who would be sympathetic to our vision, creative and imaginative in using resources and willing to work with the local trustees.  We took advice from the wider Methodist church and interviewed three firms. We chose IF_DO because of their sympathetic approach to our vision and for their enthusiastic engagement with the process.