After several years of planning, thinking, consulting and masses of fundraising, all made more challenging by Covid 19, Lockdowns and spiralling building costs, St Edward’s now has a newly renovated, decorated and re-ordered church.
The aim has always been to improve the building, making it more fit to serve the wider community as well as the church and to make it more environmentally sustainable and easier to maintain.
The work done includes:
- Installing a kitchen and
- More toilets, including an accessible toilet
- Installing insulation around the new spaces
- Ramps to improve access
- Improved lighting with 10 year LED chips for better light, less electricity and less maintenance
- A new, better insulated floor that has the flexibility to cope with ground movement caused by changes to the water table and climate change
- Purpose-built storage
- A new chapel and quiet meeting place
- A new office space
- A new sound system and AV point
In addition, the church and community have worked with arts organisation Kinetika, which specialises In creating large-scale hand-painted silks, funded by Mottingham Big Local, to create a set of six movable 3m x 1.2m wide silk hangings which will hang at either end of the church, as well as four 3m flags which will be used by the community or displayed at community events.
The silk hangings and flags have been created with residents of Mottingham to reflect the local area and the people who live within it. The hangings feature vibrant, hand painted designs, reflective of stained glass windows.
Thanks are owed to the huge numbers of people and funders who have contributed to the building work. Lack of space makes it difficult to name everyone individually but we list the most significant:
Funders: Viridor/Valencia, Veolia, Garfield Weston, Bernard Sunley, Laing Family Trust, Benefact (formerly All Churches Trust), Congregational and General Trust, Benefact, Marshall’s Charity, Kickstart, National Lottery, Spacehive, The Mercer’s Charity, The Co-op Local Community Fund, The National Churches Trust, the late Eileen Hale and the many church members, friends and members of the local community who have donated and supported our fairs and other fundraising activities.
Architects:
Dow Jones Architects – Project Architects
Tim Gough, Austin Winkley – Quinquennial Architect
Contractors: Chris Presley & TDC (Principal Contractor), Millers Electricals, AJ Simpson, Wesley Mack Plumbers, Nelsons Kitchens, Lifestyle Floors Ignite Construction, The Ramp People, Ramps for Access, CES Lighting, Kinetika Silks (funded by Mottingham Big Local and supported by CLB)
Members of the Church and Volunteers:
Errol Furlong and Elaine McNaughton – Churchwardens
Pat Dockree and Ruth Slater – Treasurers and SPAs
The PCC, the DAC, Kickstart trainees, the training & mentoring project and members of the congregation and community who helped with decorating, digging, cleaning, moving furniture, prayer and lots more…
Contact details:
Rev Dr Catherine Shelley, Vicar of St Edward’s Mottingham – 07711 611201
Southwark Diocese – E:communications@southwark.anglican.org; Tel: 0207 939 9436
Kinetika – Elyssa Fagan – elyssa@kinetika.co.uk
Mottingham Big Local – Christopher Evans – christophere@communitylinksbromley.org