St Mary’s Walthamstow, east London

2025 RIBA London Award 

Matthew Lloyd Architects for St Mary’s Walthamstow 
Contract value: Confidential
GIA: 750m²

The Vicar of the Grade II*-listed St Mary’s Walthamstow shared a sad anecdote with the jury, of people walking past the church before the works were carried out saying ‘it used to be a church but now it’s closed’. Although this had not been the case, the sentiment was understandable. The main pedestrian approach to the church had been a car park and the building offered no signs of life to visually connect with the community or suggest an invitation to enter.

As both the most protected and oldest surviving building in Walthamstow, St Mary’s required significant fabric repairs and upgrades to extend its life. In tandem with this, an ambitious brief sought to redefine the church beyond its function as a place of worship and revive it for the whole community, for activity and interaction, every day of the week. This required it to be flexible, inclusive and welcoming and necessitated completely reordering the interior. In this, it has triumphed. The jury found the building warm, bright, uplifting and full of life.

Externally, a modest new single-storey extension replaces the car park. This contains the parish office and an exhibition space, affording glimpses of light and human activity within. In turn, it now offers passive surveillance to the adjacent path. This neat move by Matthew Lloyd Architects is successful in reorientating the building to the north. Passers-by will no longer wonder if the church is still open.

The structure is expressed externally, and, together with a reconstituted stone plinth, larch cladding and window frames, the materials of the extension harmonise tonally with the render of the existing building, giving a calm cohesion to the whole. The main roof of the existing building was replaced with Welsh slate and insulated to improve energy performance.

Internally, the works have been carried out with expert discretion to the extent that one could imagine they had always been there. New secondary-glazed doors have been added inside the east entrance, allowing a visual connection to the space within and creating a draught lobby. Two generous WCs have been neatly inserted under the balcony, and, adjacent, a new café servery can be concealed behind folding panels. A new opening in the wall of the south aisle to the south vestry has effectively given the church a new space – awkward access meant that this was previously underused.

To further improve accessibility and create the required flexible community space, all of the ‘benches’ (not pews) were removed, and the stone floor carefully lifted, labelled and relaid so underfloor heating could be installed. This significant intervention in the Grade II* building has been carried out almost invisibly, and successfully created full level access.

The conservation works and new enhancements successfully extend the life of St Mary’s Walthamstow and offer a new hub for the whole community. That they have been executed with such subtlety and control is a tribute to the architects’ skill.

See the rest of the 2025 RIBA London winners here. And all our RIBA UK Award winners here.

View the full RIBA UK Awards 2025 process.

 

RIBA Regional Awards 2025 sponsored by Autodesk, EH Smith, Equitone and Velux