Here’s a brief update about our progress with the redevelopment of Church Gate.
The work has now begun, and we’re looking forward to seeing the Community Grocery take shape on the ground floor, alongside space for our Welcome Kids and Welcome Youth on the upper floors.
Progress report
At 9am on Monday, 8th September, we handed over the keys to Church Gate to O&D (the contractor undertaking the work, who also built The Chapel for us), and the refurbishment officially began. The building is now a construction site, and no one should attempt to enter it!
The first week was mainly taken up with site preparation, the most visible sign being the fencing that appeared around the site. We did have a memorable moment when someone (not from our church!) moved the fencing overnight to park their car… the builders were less than impressed! That won’t be happening again now that the fencing is fully secured.
Here’s a rough outline of the works timeline for the first few weeks:
- w/c 8th September: Set up the site; secure the site with fencing and signage; decommission and make safe the existing external ‘condenser’ units (part of the old heating system)
- w/c 15th September: Erect timber hoardings and gates at the front of the site; commence scaffolding works – you can see from the pic that this has now been done
- w/c 22nd September: Complete scaffolding works up to roof level
- w/c 29th September: Begin roofing works
- w/c 13th October: Start internal strip out
- w/c 28th November: Scaffolding comes down
Further updates will follow as we have them, but for now the planned completion date is Monday, 23rd February. This is, of course, subject to the usual range of potential complexities and delays—so watch this space for more news in the weeks ahead.
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