The St Mary's Development Project

The St Mary’s Development Project aims to secure the future of St Mary’s as a living church, serving the spiritual needs of all who pass by its doors, while also encouraging greater community use of our beautiful building. There are two aspects to the project:

1. the repair of original fabric of this historic Grade II*-listed building, and, 
2. the creation of a new entrance with office, kitchen and toilets on some of the land immediately the west of the church and the landscaping of the remainder as a publicly accessible garden.

The rewards 
The new build and landscaping will revitalize a key corner plot in the East Cliff Conservation Area that, at the moment, looks derelict and invites vandalism. It will enable the church to offer flexible, affordable spaces for hire by community groups; provide toilets for the public under the ‘Use our loo’ scheme; and enhance the church’s attractiveness as a performance venue. 
 
Support from Brighton and Hove City Council
The corner block to the west of the church is owned by Brighton and Hove City Council. The Council have agreed to lease it to St Mary’s at a peppercorn rent in return for our revitalizing it for maximum community benefit, including making the new toilets available to the public under the 'Use our loo' scheme. We are grateful to the Council for their support.

The backstory
Ironically, the Development Project emerged from Diocesan recommendations in 2003 and 2006 that St Mary’s be made redundant. The threat of closure galvanized people into action, and since 2010 the congregation have worked with the Regeneration Team of the Churches Conservation Trust (CCT) to devise a plan for sustainable growth. In June 2011, the CCT sponsored a well-attended Open Day at the church. Visitors' feedback revealed a need for affordable community spaces and a desire to use St Mary’s as an arts and performance venue without compromising the beauty of its interior or its life as a church.

Appointment of Project Architects
In April 2014, after two feasibility studies, St Mary’s appointed Nick Haseltine and John Bailey from the firm of Thomas Ford and Partners as Project Architects. Both Nick and John have an excellent record of building innovative yet respectful additions to listed places of worship. We are delighted that they wish to work with us on the project. John additionally works as our Inspecting Architect, which means that he advises us on how we must care for the existing building.

The Heritage At Risk Register and Heritage Lottery Fund
In October 2014 St Mary's was included on Historic England's Heritage At Risk Register as a building 'at immediate risk of further rapid deterioration'. This support from Historic England has helped us gain £234,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to repair the whole of the elevation facing Upper Rock Gardens. Additional and much welcomed support has come from the National Churches Trust (£40,000), the Garfield Weston Foundation (£10,000) and the Sussex Historic Churches Trust (£6,500). This first phase of repair works began in May 2016 and was completed in March 2017. In June 2017 we were delighted to be awarded a second round of development funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for investigative works to cost repairs to our sadly dilapidated 'West Front'. This is our elevation fronting St James's Street and actually faces south to the sea, a factor that has contributed to the dangerous erosion of its brick and sandstone elements. At the conclusion of our investigative works, we hope to be awarded another £233,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund as core-funding for the repairs. All being well, we will be able to carry out these repairs in the latter half of 2018.
For more information, please see our building repairs picture gallery.

Fundraising for the New Build
Along with fundraising for our repairs, we are also fundraising to ensure the new build is completed by the end of 2020. If you would like to help us breathe new life into St Mary's and its neighbourhood – to make it a real hub of the community – then please consider joining or donating to the Friends of St Mary’s. 

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Encore! Children's Theatre Workshop, October 2014.

Perspective sketch of proposed new entrance and facilities block on the corner of Upper Rock Gardens - by Nick Haseltine of Thomas Ford & Partners, January 2016.

Checking North Aisle window for loose masonry - investigative work funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, March 2015.