A Church Hall Became 23 Homes, a School Became Five: What the Church of England Is Doing With Its Buildings

• A 2021 Knight Frank audit found about 200,000 acres of Church of England property
• In Gloucester, 23 affordable homes were built on St Aldate’s church hall site
• A church-owned school in St Goran, Cornwall, became five homes
• Experts say old church buildings still hold long life and embodied carbon

As church attendance falls, denominations are rethinking what to do with their buildings. A March 2024 article in RICS Modus looked at how Church of England property is being turned into homes and other uses.

The examples are specific. In Gloucester, 23 affordable homes were completed in 2018 on the site of St Aldate’s church hall. In St Goran, Cornwall, a church-owned school was converted into five affordable homes for villagers. A Baptist church near Bridgend in Wales produced 14 new homes, and there are further projects in Cumbria and Lancashire. In Yorkshire, there are plans for an 18-bed hostel in a redundant rural church.

The scale of the opportunity is large. A 2021 Knight Frank audit found roughly 200,000 acres of Church of England property. “We tried to get a feel of where the churches are: are they listed? Are they a walk from the town centre? How are they used—Scouts? Drop-in centres?” said Ian McGuinness of Knight Frank.

Reuse has advantages. Old buildings contain “abundant embodied carbon,” said former RICS president Ann Gray, adding that churches “probably have another 200 years of life against a new building that may only have 50.” Beki Winter of Housing Justice’s Faith in Affordable Housing programme said churches, as charities, “don’t need to go for the best price” when releasing land for affordable homes. Converting churches is not easy, though: repairs, insulation and heating are costly.

Jamaica has church halls, schoolrooms and old manses that could become homes, just as St Aldate’s hall and the St Goran school did. The key lessons are to audit what the church owns, consider reuse before demolition, and remember that a charity can choose social value over the highest bid. Diaspora Jamaicans who work in property in the UK can help home churches think through these options.

Follow Jamaica Homes on Youtube @jamaicahomes and Instagram @jamaica_homes and on Facebook @jamaicahomesnews Send us a message or email us at onlinefeedback@jamaica-homes.com or editor@jamaica-homes.com