Left Bank, Leeds, Historic England Heritage Angel Award Winner

Rescued 'Building at Risk'. Formally St Margaret of Antioch church in Leeds. John has a long association with this building, working first with his own church in the late 1990's to buy it as a redundant building from the diocese, and then later providing Structural Engineering services for the refurbishment into a multifunctional arts venue, winner of Historic England's 'Heritage Angels Award'.

Designed by Temple Moor, 1910, with the west end completed by George Pace, 1964, it is grade II* listed.

The project

Various work, culminating in a £700,000 Historic England funded refurbishment scheme for the building, including full scaffolding and external fabric repairs.

The engineering challenges

Assessing the George Pace narthex - it has acted like a giant 'bay window', moving away from the bulk of the building beyond. Other work included advising on the perimeter scaffolding and perimeter repairs.

The solutions

The starting point was to undertake a detailed structural appraisal of the building, which was found to be in relatively good condition... the fabric repairs were really nipping the decay in the bud. A worthy winner of the Heritage Angel Award, reflecting the effort and care that has gone into this project by the volunteers that got it off the ground. If you are in Leeds, please do drop in and see what is going on. Many thanks to the Left Bank for the use of photographs by S Hansom & B Aldrick.