The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

The fund-raising for Phase 1 of the Crypt Project has been completed successfully, thanks to all of you who have contributed since our Dedication month in October. Although the campaign officially finished with the Gift Day on 28 March, money is still coming in slowly – not least through the Voluntary Rate. In total we now have funds available of up to £200,000 to pay for the work (although we are hoping to spend less)! Tenders will come in on 5 May, and the PCC will make a final decision about which firm to appoint and what work is affordable at its meeting on 14 May. In the meanwhile, the rooms in the undercroft have been closed so that preliminary work authorised by the PCC can start. This involves removing asbestos insulation, and moving the air system that drives the organ. (We are also using the time to re-leather the valves in the organ that control air flow, funded separately.) Several major implications of this are already apparent. First is that coffee after church will be upstairs for the next few months. We hope for good weather to enable us to use the outside space while we enjoy meeting each other. Second, the loos in the undercroft are now “out of bounds” so the longer queues for the disabled loo and the one in the vestry will mean we all have to plan ahead a bit more! Third is that the Sunday School classes will be in unexpected places for this term which will mean a bit more coming and going when the children leave/ return to church on Sunday mornings. Please bear with them as they find their way around. And finally, in order to protect it from the builders’ dust, the organ will be out of commission until September. Lee has kindly arranged for us to borrow a chamber organ from the Oratory School over this period, and has chosen an appropriate repertoire for it for our services.
All being well, therefore, we are now ready to start work on this exciting phase of the project! We are planning on completing the work by the start of the September term, and by then will have completed improvements to:

heating controls for the church, vestries and undercroft, which will reduce running costs; loos and kitchen facilities, to improve services to users and to facilitate cleaning; storage, both for ourselves and our regular hirers, which will help to keep the space tidy; heating, lighting and decoration throughout the area, making our rooms attractive for a wider range of church and community activities.

Please be patient as we cope with the experience of sharing our site with builders over the summer! Questions, comments or complaints should be directed to the Churchwardens or to Peter Ginnings, who is responsible for the project. We will be issuing a regular series of news sheets over the summer to keep you up to date on progress, and will include answers to your FAQs there. Many thanks.