£4.9m church conversion wins string of RICS gongs
A £4.9m scheme to convert a historic church in Bolton into a community facility has landed four gongs, including the Project of the Year, at the RICS North West Awards.
Grade II listed All Souls Bolton won four out of the eight accolades on offer.
The annual Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ contest, held at The Monastery – celebrates inspirational initiatives in the land, property and construction sectors.
In addition to main prize, All Souls also won the Community Benefit, Design Through Innovation and the Building Conservation Awards.
The project to conserve and regenerate All Souls has transformed a redundant church building – which had become subject to acts of vandalism and theft – in to a valued business and ‘space age’ community hub.
The scheme involved constructing a contemporary community facility within the church building and adding modern workspace, business units, a café and state-of-the-art conference facilities.
Bolton College also works in partnership with the centre to deliver a range of adult learning courses.
Chair of the RICS North West Awards judging panel, Will Rees of Rees Straw Chartered Surveyors said: “This remarkable conversion has created a sustainable business and future for an important heritage asset that would otherwise be lost forever.”
The Commercial Property Award went to Bruntwood for City Labs, Manchester; the Regeneration Award to Manchester Metropolitan University for the Birley Campus; Residential Property Award went to Lancaster Moor Hospital and the Tourism and Leisure Award went to Chester Cathedral.
