ALDERSBROOK: Worshippers could reclaim disused church (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

ALDERSBROOK: Worshippers could reclaim disused church

4:13pm Friday 10th February 2012 in Redbridge News By Clare Hardy

THE first hurdle has been cleared in a congregation’s mission to move back into a church that has been disused for two decades.

Worshippers at Aldersbrook Baptist Church hope to use money from redeveloping their church hall into two semi-detached houses towards refurbishing the 1900s building on the corner of Aldersbrook Road and Dover Road.

Permission to demolish the church hall and build the homes in its place was granted by Redbridge council this week.

Church pastor Peter Norris, 60, said: “It’s good news. It’s a really nice building.

“The plan is to preserve the outside so the building will remain the same, but cleaned up.

He said the building was abandoned as the church’s meeting place 20 years ago because it was too expensive to maintain and previous redevelopment plans had fallen through.

“We’ve got a plan now that we believe can work,” he added. “We’ll eventually have three times the space of our present hall.

“We’ll have increased facilities for ourselves and the community. At the moment, we’re restricted by a hall with no additional rooms.

“There are various activities we’re doing that are growing. We run a breakfast club, which has grown from a very few to a lot of people, and there will be better facilities for them.”

He said the refit should not cause too much disruption for groups that meet in the church hall because the congregation would raise enough money to make some of the main building fit for use before the hall is pulled down.

It is hoped the money from building and selling the houses on the site of the hall will then pay for the rest of the work on the church.

Now that planning permission has been granted, the church must find a developer willing to build the houses, which Pastor Norris said would be in keeping with homes currently in the area.

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