A brief history
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St Mildred's old church hall was built in the 1960s and was used extensively, and in a variety of ways, until 2019 when it had to be closed due to serious structural deterioration.
The project to replace the hall began back in 2009, with the launch of a fund, when it became clear that a new hall would be needed at some point in the future. We are thankful that we managed to have 10 years of usage in the old hall after that time. Since 2019, we have used two repurposed double decker buses for our Sunday morning children's work that takes place during services. You can see them in our car park! During that time we have also been working hard towards having a replacement hall building. |
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Progress....
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We appointed architects in 2013 and other professional consultants in subsequent years.
After a lot of work on the design of the new building, including public consultation, we achieved full planning consent in 2021. Since then, with the support of the Lewisham Council planning department, we have refined the plans to make the building more cost-effective to build and more environmentally efficient to run. We were delighted to receive a Faculty (formal Church of England permission) in July 2025 and so we finally now find ourselves poised to start building! |
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The New Building
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“See, I am doing a new thing…..” Isaiah 43:19
God has given us an exciting vision for a well-designed modern building for church and community use. The new building is designed to complement the architecture of the church and will be accessible to all. It will provide 600m2 of flexible, naturally lit space, including a large hall room, meeting and counselling rooms, an office, a kitchen and toilet facilities. The building will be fully accessible with a lift to the upstairs rooms plus a “Changing Places” toilet. |
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Funding
We currently have a substantial amount of the money required, and we are praying for God’s provision for the remainder. Our team and congregation continue to work on raising funds and applying for grants.
The new hall building won’t just be for church use. The church hopes to be running various groups and activities, including for babies/toddlers with their parents and carers, for children and for young people. We will also be running our Warm Welcome Space, “Alpha” and “Christians Against Poverty” courses, which are open to all.
We are excited that the vision is for the new building to be a much-needed community resource to be used by other organisations whose purpose is to provide services of benefit to local people.
Various possibilities are already under discussion, and we are keen to hear from other groups and charities who might wish to use the building for community activities. The building will also be available for private hire.
To enquire about the possibility of hiring the new building, please click here: [email protected]
Any queries concerning the building project can be sent by email to: [email protected]
The new hall building won’t just be for church use. The church hopes to be running various groups and activities, including for babies/toddlers with their parents and carers, for children and for young people. We will also be running our Warm Welcome Space, “Alpha” and “Christians Against Poverty” courses, which are open to all.
We are excited that the vision is for the new building to be a much-needed community resource to be used by other organisations whose purpose is to provide services of benefit to local people.
Various possibilities are already under discussion, and we are keen to hear from other groups and charities who might wish to use the building for community activities. The building will also be available for private hire.
To enquire about the possibility of hiring the new building, please click here: [email protected]
Any queries concerning the building project can be sent by email to: [email protected]
We are extremely grateful for all donations and grants received so far: Thank you!
How You Can Help
There are many ways you may be able to help (many at no cost to yourself). Click the button to find out more:
I would like to make a one-off donation to the building project:
I would like to donate regularly to the building project:
Latest News
July 2025: An exciting moment for St. Mildred’s when we received a grant of £137,000 from The Benefact Trust. Two weeks later we received our Faculty from Southwark Diocese.
June 2025: The first phase of the south aisle work was completed.
February 2025: we were awarded a £12,508 grant from the Lewisham Council NCIL grant to install two, dual socket 22KWh EV chargers.
June 2025: The first phase of the south aisle work was completed.
February 2025: we were awarded a £12,508 grant from the Lewisham Council NCIL grant to install two, dual socket 22KWh EV chargers.
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Between 3 November and 15 December 2024: donations up to £10,000 were given during this six-week period were matched by the Church of England’s “Give to Go Green” project. This was for the purpose of insulating and re-covering the south aisle roof in preparation for installation of solar panels.
August 2024: The Marshall’s Charity kindly awarded a grant of £25,000 towards the re-covering of the south aisle roof in preparation for the installation of solar panels. We are very grateful to this charity for their support.
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January 2024: Community audit, involving local consultation concerning how the new building will be used.
November 2023: A church leadership day, facilitated by Action Planning, enabled us to consider the project and fundraising for it, leading to the launch of a community audit.
Spring 2022: we were awarded a £5,000 grant from the Greater London Authority’s “London Community Energy Fund” to pay for an energy options study, with the objective of making the building more environmentally friendly.
April 2019: we submitted our original planning application.
December 2017: a public exhibition and consultation exercise sought views from local people on the design of the new building
November 2023: A church leadership day, facilitated by Action Planning, enabled us to consider the project and fundraising for it, leading to the launch of a community audit.
Spring 2022: we were awarded a £5,000 grant from the Greater London Authority’s “London Community Energy Fund” to pay for an energy options study, with the objective of making the building more environmentally friendly.
April 2019: we submitted our original planning application.
December 2017: a public exhibition and consultation exercise sought views from local people on the design of the new building
Thank you to our generous grant funders:
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Meet Our Team
In preparation for our new building, we have also been building strong, professional relationships with specialists and consultants, shown here. We want building and growing together to be a joyful experience because we know it is also a lot of hard work for everyone.
- Bristow
- JBKS Architects
- Harley Haddow
- CTP
- BJ Unwin Consultancy
- Jacquie Andrews
Videos Introducing the Project
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Introduction
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Supplementary: Use of the current church building and buses
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