800-year-old Teddington church with no toilets in battles to raise £1.2m for much-needed facilities
An 800-year-old church in Teddington with no toilets or social space is fundraising £1.2million so it can finally build these facilities.
St Mary with St Alban needs to raise enough cash to carry out the transformative works before planning permission runs out in December.
The Grade II* listed church has so far survived without any toilets, social space or facilities to offer refreshments, and has spent years putting together plans to install them so it can become fully accessible and fit for the future.
It secured planning permission from Richmond Council for the works in 2022 and launched a fundraising campaign the following year.
Father David Cloake, the church's vicar, completed a parachute jump at a height of 12,000 feet on Friday (May 30), raising more than £9,000 towards the total.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) the church has already raised around £600,000 from private donations and applied to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which could return a maximum grant of £250,000, so it still needs to raise around £350,000 to reach the £1.2m total.
Father David expressed gratitude for the support the community has shown the church's fundraising efforts so far, as it pushes to hit the total.
He said: "I've seen many, many people who we wouldn't say were worshipping Sunday members of the church but who have really engaged with what we're trying to do and been very supportive and have entered into a partnership at the early stages, and for that I'm incredibly grateful."
The church has served Teddington for more than 800 years, with the oldest part of the existing building dating back to the early 16th century. It has not undergone any major development for 140 years.
The project would see the church extend its garden room to provide two toilets – its first ever – including an accessible toilet with baby-changing facilities. The extended room would include a social space for community activities, children's church, concerts, workshops and school visits, along with a kitchenette to serve refreshments. It would have a new step-free entrance via the churchyard.
Some of the church's rooms would also be reorganised to maximise the space available.
The pipe organ would be replaced with a new digital organ to free up space, which would become the new sacristy – an area used by the clergy before and after services. The existing sacristy would become the new choir vestry, where members prepare for services, and double up as another meeting room.
Father David told the LDRS the works would transform the church to benefit the whole community.
He said: "There's been a church there for about 800 years, and it's developed and it's grown with need, but it lacks very basic facilities – including toilets and space for people to go with their children, or the sort of hospitality that a church needs to offer when we're doing the work that we do on a day-to-day basis.
"Apart from the church itself, which is great, we've got nowhere where we can welcome the community at large."
Regarding the church's fundraising campaign, he added: "We firmly believe that we're going in the right direction, so as long as we keep doing things like this and drum up support from the community, involve the community, I think in the end we'll get where we need to be."
Ways to donate to the church's building project can be found here, along with Father David's JustGiving page here.
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