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Newsletter > Full Archive > Columns 25 Columns NUMBER 25 • Special issue • Summer 2005 Award for ‘a glorious restoration’
The work at Christ Church has recently been recognised at the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust’s Building of the Year Awards 2005 with a special award for ‘A Glorious Restoration’. The Commission’s award recognizes the ambitious scale of the restoration project at Christ Church, the determination and hard work of all those involved and the superb results. On 16 June 2005, the Friends, Rector and PCC of Christ Church Spitalfields received the special award marking the successful restoration of the church at a ceremony celebrating some of the most exciting building projects completed in the UK during the last twelve months. The annual award from the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust, sponsored by British Sky Broadcasting, is made to a new building or building scheme of outstanding architectural merit. The panel of judges is chaired by the Lord St John of Fawsley. Each year there is an overall winner and there are also special awards for commended buildings. This year’s awards were presented by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton. A film showing all the buildings nominated and the eventual presentation of awards can be seen on Sky Artsworld channel on Thursday 28 July at 7pm and will be repeated on Friday 29 July at 2pm. Other news English Heritage recently chose Christ Church as the venue to launch the first definitive report on heritage skills, Traditional building craft skills: assessing the need, meeting the challenge. The report was presented by David Linford, Chairman of the National Heritage Training Group, Simon Thurley, Chief Executive of English Heritage and Peter Lobban, Chief Executive of CITB-Construction Skills. The detailed report sets out, region by region, the present and expected demand for different traditional crafts; it attempts to address how these demands can be met by increased focused training provision and the sort of funding which will be required to support this. Christ Church was the ideal venue for such an event as so many of these specialist skills had been utilized in the restoration of Christ Church with the results there for all to see. Dates for your diary Open House London 2005 Saturday 17 September 10am–5pm Christ Church is participating once again with over 500 venues in London for this weekend festival of architecture. Open House London provides the chance to see inside significant buildings not generally open to the public. Supporters may be interested to know that on the Saturday morning there will be bell ringing demonstrations organised by the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths and an opportunity to visit the ringing chamber. Tour of Hawksmoor’s London churches Support Although the restoration of the nave of the church is now complete, there is still vital work to be done: the complete restoration of the fine 1735 Richard Bridge organ; refurbishment of the crypt area to support the work in the church; and other smaller items such as restoring the monuments and buying suitable church furniture. If you would like to support the ongoing work of the Friends, please consider making a donation. Every donation counts and is greatly appreciated. Thank you. Cards and booklets published by the Friends A number of cards, books and leaflets are currently available from the Friends. All proceeds go towards the restoration work at Christ Church.
If you would like to support the restoration please go to the support us page for more details. Current edition | Back Issues | Get Columns emailed to you |
Detail of the Richard Bridge organ case at Christ Church
Sunflower for the new south door case carved in oak
by the workshop of Gonzalez & Harms in Chard: a
fine example of the traditional crafts instrumental to
the restoration of Christ Church.