Client
Rivertown Church elders
Location
Shotton, Flintshire
Value
Estimated £2m
Date Completed
Commenced on site Summer 2026
Development Overview
Built in 1899 to replace a temporary corrugated metal chapel, Rivertown United Reformed Church (URC), Chester Road West, has served its Shotton congregation for over 125 years.
Extended north in 1911 to accommodate a growing congregation and to the south in the 1960s, when the original entrance structure was replaced with the current, the building has evolved with its community.
To better serve the needs of both congregation and community, the Church Elders have, with Ainsley Gommon Architects, developed proposals for a scheme of building renovations and renewal supporting their “Hope on the High Street” initiative.
This scheme aims to renovate the interior of the church offering a layout better suited to the evolving needs of the community. The addition of a gallery inside the church, within a light filled and open entry sequence, allows for the introduction of a café, WC and meeting room off the high street, opening the activities of the Church to passersby. The new design highlights the church’s historic features, such as the arch above the organ, repurposing and reconfiguring them and exploring how they may enhance connections between congregational and community spaces. Where there were once physical obstacles, movement through the building has been opened up and facilities enhanced. A Changing Places shower room is to be created on the lower ground floor to accommodate the needs of the disabled community.
A guiding principle of the project is to allow access to all. As such, careful consideration has been given to improving and facilitating entry and movement within the building. The floor levels have been revised to allow level access from the street. Within, the old, raked flooring of Worship Space and Church Hall are to be replaced with level floors freed from obstacles limiting movement. All levels, including Mezzanine, first floor and upper and lower ground floors are accessible to all, with platform lifts providing connection. As part of this provision, a number of accessible WCs and changing facilities/accessible shower facilities have also been provided.
A fabric-first approach has been adopted to improving Rivertown United Reformed Church. The building is typical of its period; solid masonry walls, a mix of suspended timber and ground bearing floors, and trussed roof constructions all lacking insulation and, as a consequence, increasingly unaffordable and unsustainable to operate and maintain. The historic characteristics of the built fabric have determined the approach to improvement – breathability of constructions and mitigation of cold bridging through slender and solid constructions are paramount.
Over the former porch, now redesigned to incorporate meeting, entrance and sanitary facilities, the existing pitched roof has been reconfigured to provide a more generously proportioned, more befitting, light filled reception whose green roof takes advantage of modern constructions and insulants to provide a welcoming space with significantly improved thermal performance and material quality.
