St Michaels’ Church, Ipswich

It’s not every day that a client ‘phones to say that he has bought a church but that is what happened in February 2006. During the call a very exciting new project unfolded. The church itself was to be converted into a bistro-bar and the adjoining parish room, a separate and attractive building in its own right, was to be converted and sold to provide revenue to fund the repairs to the church.

A good deal of negotiation and a flexible approach on the part of the Ipswich Borough planning department produced a development programme whereby the parish room is converted followed by the repair of the church.