Can St Leonards’ landmark church be saved?

Several years ago, St Leonard’s church on the St Leonards seafront was forced to close. The cliff bowl in which it sat was causing structural problems and the threat of landslip. The church dates from the 1950s, is Grade 2 listed, the work of Adrian Gilbert-Scott, with stained-glass windows by Patrick Reyntiens. Bernard McGinley reports on the church’s future.

Can the building be saved from rock falls, subsidence and the encroaching cliff?  In 2021 a meeting addressed the matter. The West St Leonards Forum and the the Hastings & St Leonards Society were among those taking an interest in the future of the church, along with the Hastings Urban Design Group.

Following that meeting, a project/stakeholders’ group was set up to address concerns about the building. The group seeks to consider possible uses to which the building might be put as a community asset under a charitable organisation, if the land can be stabilised.

The daunting task was recently restated in the Hastings Independent Press.

Meeting

A public meeting was held on 6 March at the White Rock Hotel. Philip Cooper, a structural engineer and director of Cambridge Architectural Research (CAR) Ltd, and Andy Morris, a geotechnical engineer and director of Kent & Sussex Geotechnical, gave expert slide-presentations on the problems. Dr Chris Joyce of the Hastings & St Leonards Society chaired, acknowledging a formidable and frightening undertaking, but one that was doable.

The assessments were based on a recent full site visit. Severe pressure was evident — in particular on the retaining wall of the land almost immediately adjacent to the east flank of the church.

Philip Cooper spoke about the cavity walls and buttressing and the need for dialogue, and how the building was worth saving. He explained there were many technical problems, including the retaining wall (not very strong), land levels, buttressing, drainage, and water pressure. A new wall was a possibility he explained, and ground anchors.

Andy Morris then discussed geological issues: Wadhurst clay, sandstone and types of landslip and ‘landscarp’. He spoke on varieties of containment for a tight site where a wheelbarrow couldn’t get in. With temporary works and enabling works, the project would be expensive, including the removal of doors and building of ramps. However there were technical, specialist solutions, with an onsite project time of perhaps nine months.

Money

Naturally the cost was a particular interest, and definitions of responsibilities. The cost of making the site secure and usable is unknown, affecting fundraising possibilities. Both experts were reluctant to cite a figure, because an accurate figure is indefinable at this stage, and a wrong one would be unfairly cited thereafter. The sum needed to repair the church and make it functional again was millions — many millions.

Q&A

Green councillors Julia Hilton and Tony Collins were present, and representatives of West St Leonards Forum and Hastings Older Women’s Co-Housing (HOWCH).

In the discussion that followed, the question of leasing was raised, but that would be one possibility among many. Funding (and match funding) were also touched on, and the competing seafront ‘good cause’ of St Mary-in-the-Castle.

Estimates depend on assumptions made about a complex site, and remain broadly unknowable at present. The worst-case scenario would be the need for demolition, very much a last resort and not an active consideration.

HOWCH commented on their endeavours to date, including being awarded a small grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund for diverse site assessments, and liaison with the local charity the Seaview Project. Their advocacy of a housing scheme for women aged 50+ was sustained, including not just conversion of the church but use of communal gardens in the wider site. Their model is a London scheme.

Cllr Hilton was among those advocating a representative body, possibly a St Leonard’s Church Charitable Trust, to negotiate with the borough and county councils, central government departments, the Church of England, the Environment Agency, heritage bodies, trusts and foundations, local organisations, and others.

The site is in a Conservation Area and is deemed by Historic England to have ‘group value’, assets of mutual benefit and enhancement. Definitions of the site vary. A wide one would include the church, the cliff bowl, the steps, the hillside, the Burton Tomb on West Hill Road, and the abandoned structure in Undercliff (the long box on the right of the diagram below) at present held by the Crown as bona vacantia. It might even include the space in front of St Leonard’s.

The present project’s aim is to repurpose this building and surrounds for the benefit of the local community, with a use as yet undetermined. First of all the cliff has to be stabilised, and the site owners (the county and borough councils, the Anglican diocese, and an investment bank) need to agree on the building’s future.

When HOWCH suggested that the H&St L Society was showing lack of engagement, the Chair insisted ‘We have not appointed ourselves’. He added that the Society had been reaching out in the matter, including in talks with the diocese, and exploration of community asset status. People wanting to be involved or kept informed of the project could continue to contact the Hastings and St Leonards Society or do so by emailing hstlsoc@gmail.com.

Lots of valuable free time had been contributed. It was pointed out that support could be non-financial. Hastings Borough Council had made it clear that it had no money to contribute, but it was suggested it could help in other ways, such as facilitation, endorsement and promotion.

For the St Leonard’s Church project Dr Joyce added, ‘We don’t [yet] have a final idea’.

Talk

On Sunday 26 March at 3 pm there will be a talk on the Burton Tomb, its condition and future. Christopher Maxwell-Stewart, a civil engineer and founder of the Burtons’ St Leonards Society, will speak about the celebrated St Leonards pyramid. The meeting is at the  Royal Victoria Hotel (Burton Room) on the St Leonards seafront. For non-members the charge will be £5 (members free).

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