New Church Hall, St Mary’s, Wimbledon

Following on from the Pawson House completed a year or so previously, this building also has a heterogeneous context. George Gilbert Scott’s grade II* listed church had a listed red brick wall forming a boundary to the churchyard, and an existing 1980’s parish office and hall. The Parish needed a bigger hall space and the existing hall was of poor architectural quality, and had low eaves and a high pitched roof making its extension problematic. Terry Pawson’s solution was to create a new building at the other end of the walled garden next to the existing hall, making a lawned open space between the two.

The new hall comprises a high ceilinged single space, that can be sub-divided into two, and a series of smaller ancillary rooms. A structural glass prism marks the junction between the main hall and ancillary spaces (entrance, changing for ballet/fitness classes, kitchen), that forms the highest ceiling within the building. The apparent mass of the hall is reduced by sinking it into the surrounding landscape. Concrete retaining structures form the external walls on three sides of the building.

A steel framed superstructure supports the pre-cast concrete roof (thermal mass), ashlar stone cladding, render on blockwork, and dry stone walling. The roof spans 11 metres and required the appropriate stiffness to support a moveable heavy acoustic partition. Careful structural detailing was required to achieve the clean junctions between the various components. The glass prism contains no steel framing; the structure is glass.

Architect Terry Pawson Architects
Awards Civic Trust Award 2004