The Union Chapel Restoration Project: Progress and Prognosis

Speaker: John Bailey, consultant architect
Time: 8:00 PM
Venue: Islington Town Hall, Upper Street, London N1

Union Chapel is a Grade II* listed building which badly needs repairs. Much needs to be done both outside and in. Crumbling brickwork, leaking windows and statues with broken noses all need attention - but the first priority is the tower.

The upper sections of the tower have now become so decayed that immediate steps must be taken to support them.

The Tower was added in 1888, 18 years after the completion of the chapel and the Sunday School on Compton Avenue. The original 1875 design was for a typical gothic revival 'Somerset Parish Church' style four square tower.

James Cubitt redesigned it during the 1880's and made it a more fashionable, civic and ‘English’ style.

The scaffolding will support the gables and the masonry archers below them. There will then be 3 or 4 phases of repair work over 3-5 years, with repairs descending to ground level in 2012 – 14