Users of the multi-storey car park on Coptfold Road in Brentwood will have seen – from height – the building work which is going on to refurbish and update the former United Reform Church building on the other side of the green.
There’s been a church of one kind or another on this site for more than three hundred years, and thousands of Brentwood residents will have visited the building, be it for worship or for ballet and tap dancing lessons when it was home to the Central School of Dance.
Sadly, the United Reform Church congregation dwindled to a point when the church was no longer viable for them to use and it was put up for sale. I am very pleased the building has been acquired by the Immanuel Church Brentwood – which has met in various school halls and hired spaces around Brentwood previously – and will continue to be a place of worship and community.
The work’s being led by retired Chartered Building Surveyor and church member, Jeremy Kingston, and Gipping Construction’s Carl Taylor, under the watchful eye of the minister, Rev. Andrew Grey. Andrew explained to me, when I visited the site last week, the plan is to bring the listed building into the 21st century while respecting its history and its future use as a faith based community hub to bring local people and worshippers together.
It's an impressive project and I am grateful to the Immanuel Church Brentwood for putting the money, time and faith into restoring the building. I look forward to it opening in late Spring, and to all the church will bring to Brentwood in its new home.
