The Prittlewell Chapel Reconstruction
 

Prittlewell Chapel was disused for many years and became overgrown with plants and home to vagrants and drug users.  Some people from Southend Council asked the National Lottery to give them some money so they could make it look better, but they were turned down. Soon after that a fire badly damaged the shell of the building. This fire meant that the people in charge of North Road Burial Ground decided that they had to have the chapel knocked down.         

Desperate to save the building, the people working at Southend Council contacted the National Lottery again to ask if there was any way it could help to save the building. Miraculously, one of the projects that had beaten the council's original bid was no longer going ahead and they were looking for another project to take its place.
    

The rebuilding project was funded with a £998,715 BIG Community Assets Grant and £21,712 from the Southend Economic Participation Programme (via the East of England Development Agency). Following a tendering process where building companies wrote bids to explain why they should do the work, Southend Borough Council chose Beardwell Construction and work began in January 2010.
 

It was thought that the original timbers (pieces of wood) could be saved from the south chapel, but once work started it became clear that they were too damaged. The chapel's spire was also in a very dangerous condition and was close to falling in on itself through the chapel roof. All of the unsafe and unusable wood, plaster, bricks and stone were removed before the chapel could be rebuilt using as much of the original material as it was possible to save.
 

Many skilled craftspeople were brought in and the chapel was transformed from a derelict shell to the beautiful building that stands there today. Pan-European organisation Build With CaRe (Carbon Reduction) commissioned Blade Education to follow the rebuilding of the chapel and film its progress. You can watch the films at:

http://www.buildwithcare.eu/videos/90-refurbishment/172-build-with-care-prittlewell-chapel-movies

Neil Pointer, the Southend Borough Council Engineer in charge of the project explains the legacy that has been created:  The building that stands in the middle of the North Road Burial Ground now is well-sealed and well-insulated with thick walls and highly efficient insulated glass windows. The vision for this building was that it should have long-term sustainability and resist moisture, wind and vandalism. It’s been an unusual experience working in a burial ground, with graves packed tight to the building site and none of these being allowed to be moved. As a result, no drainage work is possible.
 

Neil is also proud of the chapel's energy-efficient features: The energy supplied is renewable energy from solar cells on the south side of the roof of the southern building, and an air-source heat pump. Ventilation and heating are regulated in five different zones, in which heat is utilised through heat exchangers. This is fully automated, but there is also an option for manual operation, as well. Toilet waste and waste water are handled through a bio-tank and rainwater tank, respectively, close to the building … the floors have under floor heating, lighting is by high frequency LED low-energy lamps, and a BMS [Building Management System] monitors the energy efficiency of the building."

“The opening between the chapels previously separated them, but now connects them instead, with a glassed-in reception area,” explains project architect Rob Neobard. "In addition to all the stones of the façade being checked and replaced by new ones, where needed the building has been upgraded on all levels with as sustainable material as possible."

Prittlewell Chapel has now been handed over to the Southend Association for Voluntary Services (SAVS), which will oversee its use as two small office units for hire by social enterprises and local voluntary organisations.
 

In January 2012, thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund, Ernest Cook Trust, Essex Heritage Trust and Trusthouse Charitable Foundation, the Shared Spaces Project began working in North Road Burial Ground. Run by local not for profit organisation Blade Education, Shared Spaces aims to save as many of the stories of the more than 8,000 people buried at North Road, as well as using the site as an outdoor learning space.