Affordable Housing

Anniesland

‘Nobody said “we can’t knock down the building”… yes it was a building that we loved, but that wasn’t going to be the way forward’ – Gillian Gibb, Anniesland Methodist Church.

Summary

Old, cold, creaky buildings. In the church, we’re used to their idiosyncrasies. Often, though, the burden of looking after them is too much. Anniesland Methodist Church had a small, ageing congregation, and maintaining a large building led them to consider closing.

The congregation resigned themselves to the fact that their church would be demolished. This allowed them to think about what the land could be used for: to think about its missional use. They identified a lack of housing provision for older people, and approached Sanctuary Scotland – a housing association – to see if they’d be interested in the site.

Talking with Sanctuary, they realised that there was no reason that they couldn’t have a space for worship as well. They designed a new multi-use space, several meeting rooms and a kitchen. Above the new church, Sanctuary were able to build twenty-four social rented homes for over fifty-fives.

As well as providing shelter for people, the redevelopment has allowed the church to expand its mission, without the financial and time cost of maintaining the previous building.

Background

The previous building of Anniesland Methodist Church was built in 1928, and the hall in 1966. By the late 2000s, one member, in his eighties, had to go there late in the evening to turn on the heating so that it was ready by Sunday morning. The costs were massive – heating a church like this can cost £3,000 a year. The roof also needed repairing, which would cost £80,000. The congregation couldn’t fundraise this much, so they officially started making plans to close.

Because the area has a large elderly population – but also a lot of deprivation – affordable housing for over fifty-fives was an important service to provide, so this was their aim for the land. The eventual agreement was that Sanctuary would build the church a new space equivalent in value to the price of the land, the ownership of which Sanctuary received.

While the previous buildings were very attractive, neither were listed. There is some protection on sandstone buildings in Glasgow, but the sandstone in the immediate surroundings of the chapel had already been disturbed, so this was not applicable. The bottom two floors of the new building have been clad in sandstone salvaged from the previous church building.

Impact

• Strathclyde Methodist Circuit, of which Anniesland is part, are now being more proactive in discussing redevelopment and refurbishment, working with other churches before they reach the point of considering closure. Throughout the Methodist church in Scotland, this is now called ‘doing an Anniesland’!
  • The continued success at Anniesland has made other churches in the circuit less worried by the idea.
• Running costs are low, and the building requires little maintenance.
• The church has also started growing – a far cry from closing! – as they are able to be outward-looking without the stress of the previous building. They’ve made six new members, and attendance has increased from about 10 to between 15 and 20 on a Sunday.
• The building is much more versatile. This makes it useful for community groups, which also provides an income for the church. The new building has a combined multi-purpose hall with a sliding separator. It also has several side rooms and a kitchen.
  • Almost all previous users have returned, and many more have joined because of the more convenient space.
• Keeping the church open is important to their community. Scottish Methodists are passionate about their identity, so would otherwise potentially travel a long way to worship.
• There have been trade-offs. The church understood that their new place would not be as big, and it was an emotional journey. But, out of the ashes has come a stable, growing church.

‘It is now one of the most economically comfortable [churches in the circuit]’ because of lets’ – Rev Andrew Baker

What do you need?

Anniesland Methodists remind other churches to think about seemingly small things like where they will store their belongings between buildings. In their case, they were kept by another church in their circuit.

Personnel and time

• The church began thinking about options in 2008, but did not approve a tender until 2013, because they were finding the right plan and partner. This needn’t necessarily take this long, though.
• The process of building itself only took about a year. During this time, the congregation worshipped in a nearby community space. When the re-opening was delayed, Sanctuary Housing Association paid for their hire costs.
• The minister was very hands-on with the scheme, and the (voluntary) circuit property secretary also put a lot of time in. While he did not have a property background, his experience as a manager of a supermarket – where he had dealt with refits – was put to use.
• The son of a member of the congregation was the architect for the scheme, so he understood their vision – but don’t worry if you haven’t birthed an architect!

Finances and real estate

• The quality – and even viability – of a reprovided worshipping space will vary greatly  depending on the land price. So, the amount of units incorporated will play a part, but also the area in which it’s situated. Strathclyde Circuit have found that another church a couple of miles away have land worth much less.
• This building cost Anniesland nothing, but they passed the ownership of the land to Sanctuary. They only had to pay for the hire of alternative premises during the agreed demolition period.

Partnerships

• Sanctuary was not the first partner Anniesland approached. It’s important to remember that if it does not work with your first choice of partners this does not mean that the scheme won’t succeed.
• Sanctuary has worked with churches before, so they understand them, but this was not a prerequisite for the scheme, and Strathclyde are also now working with another housing association.
• They put together a contract which ensured that the church still owned the site during demolition, so that if Sanctuary’s financial situation changed after the church was demolished they wouldn’t be left with nothing.

Tips

• This model is fairly replicable. Could you ‘do an Anniesland’?
• It’s important to be strong with developers about snagging issues.
• While the congregation are happy with their new building, there are several things which, in hindsight, they would have done differently. For example, they didn’t consider the ‘wow factor’ of their new sanctuary enough.
• They advise churches to clarify the relationships between the housing association, developer, architect and church.
• Proving financial and practical issues with existing buildings can help with demolition and planning permission.
• Churches should make use of resources higher up in their denominations, along with other experts such as on stained glass or organs.