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Churches for sale


sarahbell

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3 hours ago, sarahbell said:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-60333103.html
 

  • A detached, Grade II listed Church
  •  
  • Link-detached 5 bedroom presbytery

 

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-58079374.html
 

  • SUBSTANTIAL GRADE II LISTED CHURCH
  • PARTIAL CONVERSION COMPLETED

 

That second one has changed hands a few times - the current owners paid £180k for it and seem to have done fuck all with it in the last four years.

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Far too much stuff is listed. Absolutely nothing about the first link appears that architecturally remarkable it requires keeping.

I always assume those who buy churches somehow never saw all those boards outside churches for their neverending roof appeals. Unless you're a stonemason with good general building skills as well probably going to be near impossible to end up with something worth more than the money you pour in, particularly oop north.

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This one in Truro may still be for sale, I walk past it from time to time and it looks impressive, the Diocese has had it on the market for several years for not very much ?£200k but a structural survey has been done and it is estimated that it would cost £3.8m to fix its structural problems.

So nice Victorian building it may be, but the plot doesn't extend much beyond it (the picture is misleading), you can't do much with as it's listed, and it will cost you £4m to buy and fully restore it.

http://m.cornwalllive.com/iconic-listed-st-paul-s-church-in-truro-under-threat-of-being-demolished-after-more-than-170-years/story-29759062-detail/story.html

I used to like the idea of a quirky home, a couple of Cornish minehouses have been made into homes, but they all seem to have far more costs and compromises than a normal house.

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Caravan Monster
On 8/21/2017 at 18:11, SNACR said:

Far too much stuff is listed.

Agree, there is more or less a church in every village and they can't all be kept going indefinitely with dwindling congregations. Really, some hard decisions need making about demolishing some of them. Maybe demolition by hand with thorough recording of anything of architectural or historical note. The resultant materials could be re-used to build more suitable buildings for residential or community use. Some will work for conversion to residential as is, that Todmorden one looks like it could work although the scale and cost of the work must be daunting. However, many are not suited to residential conversion. You would have to really want to live in a Church, surrounded by graveyard, with the weird smell from victorian heating systems and the strange ambiance. Maintaining tracery windows and stained glass is going to be expensive, and the rest kind of similar to historic residential buildings being slightly lower on the scale of expensive.

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On 8/21/2017 at 18:11, SNACR said:

Far too much stuff is listed. Absolutely nothing about the first link appears that architecturally remarkable it requires keeping.

 

Completely disagree - it's a fine example of  Modernism in the 60s and quite architecturally interesting. As it's Listed it'll be preserved better than if it wasn't, and in 100 years time it will look much the same. From an historic architectural perspective, that's pretty valuable.

The problem with churches isn't that they are listed, it's more that they are huge, drafty & cold, and colossally expensive to maintain as they weren't built with that purpose in mind.

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5 hours ago, spunko2010 said:

Completely disagree - it's a fine example of  Modernism in the 60s and quite architecturally interesting. As it's Listed it'll be preserved better than if it wasn't, and in 100 years time it will look much the same. From an historic architectural perspective, that's pretty valuable.

The problem with churches isn't that they are listed, it's more that they are huge, drafty & cold, and colossally expensive to maintain as they weren't built with that purpose in mind.

The problem with listing an average building is that it then throws a lot of maintenance cost upon the owner who may be unwilling or unable to pay it and that may actually hasten its decline.

Here's Plymouth Civic Centre; the old council offices in the centre of Plymouth.

1438431_plymouth-civic-centre.jpg

Distinctive and dominant it may be but this was listed by English Heritage after an application by four or five people just when the council was going to knock it down as unfit for purpose and ludicrously expensive to run and maintain.

Urban Splash bought it for £1 with the aim of making it a hotel but again have found it unviable to convert because of the restrictions upon it. 

So it sits there, visibly crumbling. No longer a council responsibility and with no prospect other than decay.

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQtG4ZJHif8pLXokC3UuU-

tiles-falling-off-a-column-plymouth-civi

Without being listed this site, and elements of the building, would have been redeveloped and refurbished and be in active use.  There needs to be a reasonable appeals procedure and a process of de-listing.

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1 hour ago, The XYY Man said:

Not exactly churches as such, but there are two local ex-colliery villages (including mine) where the Salvation Army have finally surrendered, and put their premises up for sale.

 

XYY

Shame.  When I were a lad this really old Sally Ann lady used to come collecting round all the roughest pubs on a Friday night 

It was something to behold, total thugs suddenly started watching their language, speaking quietly and shyly digging in their pockets for change; everyone put in including me.

What a woman!

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