St Anthony’s is a Grade II listed church located in Wythenshawe Greater Manchester. We were appointed to design a sympathetic new community hub and presbytery in the grounds of the listed building, providing benefits for both the church and the local community.

In 2017, we were appointed by the Diocese of Shrewsbury to prepare proposals for a new presbytery and community centre on the site of St Anthony’s Church in Wythenshawe – a grade II listed building designed by renowned Architect Adrian Gilbert Scott.

The site extended to 0.3 hectares and was already occupied by St Anthony’s and an existing presbytery and social centre. There had been no formal planning of the site, leading to an awkward relationship between the buildings. The church and presbytery created external spaces of poor quality and the inconsistency of materials between the three buildings created a poor composition.

We were tasked with developing considered proposals for the site in collaboration with the Diocese. The brief was to make better use of the site, provide a sympathetic built response befitting the neighbouring church and to provide enhanced amenity for the local community and the Diocese.

The final project has seen us deliver a new 2,500 sq ft presbytery adjoining a 3,700 sq ft community centre on the footprint of the demolished former buildings.

The three-storey presbytery includes a parish office, lounge, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms with an ensuite on the first floor, and two bedrooms on the second floor with a shared bathroom. Connected to the Presbytery is the single-storey community hub which offers a central hall, vestibule, kitchen, lounge and bar area with a social club.

Despite being contained largely to the original footprint of the former buildings, through better use of the site we were able to accommodate additional car parking to support the building uses.

Externally, the buildings were designed in buff coloured brick to match the existing Church building and include portland stone feature surrounds and banding on the elevations. The pitched roofs are finished with clay roof tiles to match the tiles on the Church. In total the new development has 7 separate roofs.

The finished building is a now a well-used community asset. Providing improved accommodation for parish staff as well as a high-quality event space for a variety of church and social functions for people in the local area.