The Lighthouse

Project Name:	The Lighthouse
Location:	London
Client:	Holy Trinity Swiss Cottage
Net Value:	£11,600,000.00

The Lighthouse project will see the replacement of the existing 1970’s church building with its limited capacity and dated facilities, with a superb new church and community facility. The Lighthouse will incorporate a 450-seat worship space, which will be equipped to support various ecclesiastical services, plus allow use for conferences and other events which will bring in valuable revenue to support the work of the church. The facility will provide other community facilities, including flexible spaces for use by voluntary and community groups, residential accommodation for vulnerable young people, staff accommodation for trainee clergy and office accommodation for the church and its partner organisations.

From feasibility, Tandem have taken control of the project and has guided the client and consultant teams through the various stages of the design and procurement of the project. We have led the process with the local authority to achieve Planning approval and have coordinated the multitude of Land and Property issues associated with the project.

Project Challenge

Our Response

Despite this being a not-for-profit community facility, it was still a very difficult Planning process to achieve approval.

Tandem recommended and procured the services of a specialist Planning Consultant used to working with the local authority to assist with the process. We led the extensive pre-application discussions with Planners to ensure any controversial issues were addressed prior to the application being lodged.

The building is on a constrained site and is surrounded by multi-storey buildings, including a residential building to the rear. There was a risk of the development impinging on daylighting and rights to light for the neighbouring properties.

In order to ensure we were meeting the statutory obligations for rights of light and daylighting, we commissioned a specialist surveyor to define a development envelope in which to constrain the design for Lighthouse without impinging on neighbours’ rights.