.png){kind=small}
Florence Eshalomi MP and Giles Goddard opened the 5th Lambeth Local History Fair on Saturday 3rd September, the first public event at the soon-to-be renewed St Johns Waterloo church.
St John’s Waterloo, one of London’s landmark churches and cultural venues and a beacon of hope for the homeless, is nearing the completion of it's major £5 million restoration.
In detail, the restoration project, entitled “ReIGNITE”, involved:
creating space for St John’s charity arm, The Bridge at Waterloo, to run Waterloo Well – its new programme of employment training, resilience, wellbeing, and therapy projects
creating new offices and state-of-the-art rehearsal facilities for world-renown academy orchestra Southbank Sinfonia's alumni,
creating three new meeting, rehearsal and training rooms, a studio space, two counselling/practice rooms, a community kitchen, and showers for times when the church runs as a homelessness shelter
opening St John’s entrance with a new foyer
improving acoustics and lighting to provide state of the art performance facilities
restoring the very significant murals by Hans Feibusch and making them even more of a focal point
creating a new baptistry and prayer space near the entrance
installing a new lift to give full access to the crypt
making the atmospheric, brick-arched Long Room in the crypt into a spectacular space for events, exhibitions, performances, and private hire
providing new lavatories and a store for the churchyard gardeners.