Demolished in 2011, Rebuilt as 58 Homes: A Salford Catholic Church Site Becomes Melody Gardens

• All Souls Roman Catholic Church in Weaste, Salford, closed in 2010 and was demolished in 2011
• The one-acre site stood empty for years before 58 homes were planned
• Homes will be let through the council’s choice-based lettings with rents capped at Local Housing Allowance
• Mayor Paul Dennett welcomed the empty site being brought back into use

For years after All Souls Roman Catholic Church in Weaste, Salford, closed its doors, the land where it stood lay empty. The church shut in 2010 and was demolished in 2011, leaving a one-acre plot on the corner of Liverpool Street and Weaste Lane. In April 2018 the Manchester Evening News reported that nearly 60 new homes were being built there.

The scheme, named Melody Gardens, will provide 58 homes: a four-storey block of 48 one- and two-bedroom flats, nine two-storey houses with three or four bedrooms, and a two-bedroom bungalow. Salford council granted planning permission for the development.

The homes are aimed at people in housing need. They will be allocated through the council’s choice-based lettings system, with rents capped at Local Housing Allowance rates, starting from just under £300 a month. The site will include disabled parking, an electric vehicle charging point and a mobility scooter store.

Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett said: “This site has remained empty and unused for many years and I’m delighted to see it brought back into use.”

The project shows a common outcome for closed church sites in Britain’s cities. When a parish shrinks and a building comes down, the land itself remains valuable, and affordable housing is one of the most practical ways to give it a new purpose that serves the neighbourhood.

Church land in Jamaica is often in the heart of communities where affordable homes are scarce. For Catholic and other church leaders on the island, and for returnees and diaspora members who care about what happens to church sites, Salford is a clear example of how a site left idle can become homes at rents working families can manage.