“Raising St Peter’s” ~ Talk and Tour by John Alexander of Alexander Designs

Friday 8th September at 7pm, Ticketed event

St Peters Ropley is a medieval church that was changed many time in the 800 years since it was founded.  This included a major transformation during the Oxford Movement in the late nineteenth century. In 2014, the building was all but raised to the ground by fire.    The devastation was so great that a realistic option was leaving the shell as a ‘managed ruin’.  

This tour and lecture is about the process of saving what was left and establishing a new lease of life for this church as a corner stone of this rural community

John will take us through the journey of raising St Peter’s from his experience as an architect, including

• An exploration of the history of the church, as means of assessing the significance of the fabric that was lost and that which survived the fire.   

• How that assessment informed the design process to reconcile the brief against physical reality of what could be saved.

• The consultation and approval process.

• The process of implementation including:

  • Archaeology

  • Services: particularly under ground

  • Discrete structural solution

  • Environmental control and how the solution interfaces with the aesthetic

  • Acoustic

  • Bell Tower, engineer and history

  • Preservation and conservation of fabric.  Flint, stonework, windows and timber