The project will restore and enhance St John’s vast open nave as a place of worship, concert and event space and transform its semi-derelict crypt into a place where community, arts wellbeing, employment, and youth initiatives can thrive.

Eric Parry Architects whose award-winning previous commissions include the renewal of St Martin’s-in-the-Fields among many other heritage projects, has designed and will oversee the restoration. Buxton has been appointed as the building contractor. Buxton has worked on Canterbury, Rochester and Guildford Cathedrals, the Imperial War Museum, numerous churches, and other listed buildings.

The Revd Canon Giles Goddard, vicar of St John’s Waterloo, said: “After 10 years of fundraising and a year’s delay due to Covid, we are thrilled that work is finally to begin on site."

“St John’s opened in 1826 to serve a burgeoning population of working people on the South Bank. During the Second World War, a firebomb devastated the nave but services continued, and the crypt provided shelter."

“In 1951, St John’s was restored and rededicated as the official church of the Festival of Britain. Now, in the wake of the pandemic, we need more than ever for our magnificent Grade II* church to be here for everyone, a place where we can come together to grow and to heal.”

Eric Parry said: “The overall vision for St Johns Waterloo is one of creating the open door, the welcome, the space for different uses from the informal to the formal, and to enable the capacity for solemnity on the one hand and celebration on the other. The project is wonderful because of the simultaneity and diversity of people involved and because these spaces are able to deliver a sense of tranquillity and introspection in a world that is so manic and so stressed, their value is enormous and this is why this project is so important.”

David Norman, Managing Director of Buxton, said: “We’re very excited about starting on site at St John’s Church in Waterloo. With its rich history and its exciting future, I am sure it will be a rewarding project for all involved. A complex heritage restoration and adaptation project such as this brings with it exceptional challenges and allows us to extend our skills once more to an ecclesiastical scheme.”

In detail, the restoration project, entitled “ReIGNITE”, will involve:

creating space for St John’s charity arm, The Bridge at Waterloo, to run Waterloo Well – its new programme of employment training, resilience, wellbeing, and therapy projects
creating new offices and state-of-the-art rehearsal facilities for world-renown academy orchestra Southbank Sinfonia's alumni,
creating three new meeting, rehearsal and training rooms, a studio space, two counselling/practice rooms, a community kitchen, and showers for times when the church runs as a homelessness shelter
opening St John’s entrance with a new foyer
improving acoustics and lighting to provide state of the art performance facilities
estoring the very significant murals by Hans Feibusch and making them even more of a focal point
creating a new baptistry and prayer space near the entrance
installing a new lift to give full access to the crypt
making the atmospheric, brick-arched Long Room in the crypt into a spectacular space for events, exhibitions, performances, and private hire
providing new lavatories and a store for the churchyard gardeners.

Tour: St John's Waterloo under restoration