Chapel Conversion, Jericho, Oxford

Overview

The original incarnation of this building was a Wesleyan Methodist Chapel Mission Room built in 1873. It was used in the C20th century for a number of uses from ice cream making to a removal firm and then as a teaching room for A-level students. There were small details of the arches windows on the original Chapel remaining which we transferred to the new elevational details.

This project started with obtaining consent for the “Change of Use” to residential and for alterations to create the house using the basic shell but re-building the end gable walls to replicate what was thought to have been the original chapel form in this terrace streetscape.

The internal plan provides a first floor bedroom and ground floor bedroom with a large open plan Living area between. Access to a small garden was made possible by altering the garden line of the neighbouring property after purchase by the developer.

Having investigated the structure further a steel frame was inserted inside the outer shell of the building to shore up the walls which were really originally built too narrow for stuctural stability in this open form of structure and as with many Victorian structures had no real foundations.

The new inner structure was then insulated to very high levels and with the addition of an Air Source Heat Pump and HVAC systems along with a small amount of PV allowed in this Conservation Area makes this a highly energy efficient building.