What Can You Do With A Listed Church Building?

Revitalising church buildings is an exceptionally rewarding process that involves taking a piece of architectural history and giving it a new lease of life in the modern age.

Sometimes this involves reordering, retaining the chancel for mass but adding secular facilities, but in other cases, it involves a more substantial conversion away from religious use, typically if the church itself has relocated.

One of the consequences of using a church building as part of a renovation project, particularly if it is a historic structure, is that there are often somewhat strict laws surrounding its use if it happens to be a listed building.

A listed building is any building that is on a national heritage list, which in England means it is considered to have special historic or architectural importance.

This importance is graded from the historic landmarks of Grade I to Grade II buildings which have special interest due to their design characteristics or historical importance.

Close to 15,000 churches are listed buildings, several of which have been closed as churches, meaning that it is very possible that a potential church renovation will have listed status.

This can complicate attempts to substantially renovate a building, as any improvements need to be mindful of the historic character of the building, and will often require listed building consent if they cannot otherwise be avoided.

The best way around this is to work with your local planning authority, as well as experts in working with listed buildings to ensure that whatever you want to do with your listed building is within the grounds of listed building consent.

Anything above maintenance is typically going to require listed building consent, and choosing to ignore it can lead to an enforcement notice that requires any changes to be reversed, a decision that can prove to be immensely costly.