Southwark Consistory Court: George Ch, August 2002
The petitioners sought a faculty to convert the crypt of a Grade I listed church which is the best preserved church of the architect Sir John Soane. The parish sought to turn the crypt (at present wasted space) into a community hall for the economically deprived area in which the parish was situated. They also sought to install a lift to enable disabled access to this facility and to improve the entry to the crypt from the exterior of the building. Over £1 million out of a projected budget of £1.3 million had already been raised. The Georgian Group opposed the petition. The chancellor re-visited the principle that there is a strong presumption against any change which would adversely affect the character of a building as a building of special architectural or historic interest. He applied the questions posed by Mynors Ch. in Re St Thomas, Stourbridge (2001, unreported) as follows:
(i) Do the proposed alterations adversely affect the character of the church as a building of special architectural or historic interest?
(ii) If they do, what is the necessity for carrying them out?
(iii) Does that necessity outweigh the adverse effect?
This reversed the order of the first two Bishopsgate questions. In applying this approach the chancellor stated that it in no way questioned the principle that the presumption is heavily against change (see Re St Mary, Sherborne [1996] Fam 63). He treated necessity as something less than essential, but more than merely desirable or convenient following his earlier judgment in Re St John the Evangelist, Blackheath (1998) 5 Ecc LJ 217. The chancellor found that the character of the building as a whole would not be adversely affected by the proposed works but that the character of the crypt would be. The necessity for the re-ordering of the space, however, rebutted the presumption against change and a faculty was granted.
(2003) 7 Ecc LJ 103
