Unitarian Chapel development given go-ahead

Planning Approval and Listed Building Consent have been granted for a new residential development at the Welsh Baptist Chapel and adjoining Sunday School on Upper Brook Street, Manchester.

The Chapel was built by Sir Charles Barry, an architect renowned for his rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, and is Grade II* listed. This sensitive project, led by Buttress Architects, seeks to bring the Chapel back in to sustainable use and remove it from Historic England’s At Risk register.

The scheme will provide high quality, private residential apartments within the Chapel and Sunday School buildings and incorporate a contemporary new build element providing facilities including a fitness room, cinema room and residents’ lounge.

Integral to the development will be extensive restoration work to repair and revive the existing fabric such as retention and repair of the distinctive rose window, corbels and vaulted springers along with the reconstruction of the Chapel roof.

Permission to start work has been given, with completion due in summer 2017.