We still can’t quite believe that we’ve finally purchased the Irving building on Hertford Street – it’s so exciting! Plans are already underway for transforming it into the home for our church and community hub we’ve envisioned, a place where we can love and serve East Oxford. Here’s an update on our progress.
With big plans to transform the site, we’ve appointed local architect MEB Design for the project (you can check them out here). Within the church family, we’ve formed different teams to take care of various parts of the process such as fundraising, design, communications and prayer, so it’s a real group effort. We’ve already begun the design process and, as a church, have had the chance to share ideas and give feedback on some initial suggestions for the building. We’re hoping to create a new layout within the existing building and build an additional hall on the site.
It’s been great to have suggestions from those in our church community, but we also want to hear from our local community. So we’re planning a date (to be confirmed) within the next few months for residents nearby to tell us what they think. There will be an opportunity to share your ideas about how we could use the new building to serve the area well, and to give feedback on the designs before we send them into the council’s planning team.
But it’s not just ideas we need. We still have a long way to go in raising enough money to turn our vision into reality. With that in mind, we’ve started a Launch Fund, with a target of raising £180,000 by September. This will enable us to get the building ready for use and complete all the necessary preparations for fully redeveloping the site.
There’s practical work to do too. The site needs to be tidied up before we can begin the work, so we have had working bees at weekends to make a start on this, and will continue to do so over the next few weeks. If you’re passing, you may see us tidying up around the place so come and say hi!
We’re already connecting with some local charities who are interested in using some of the space once it’s usable. If you know of groups who would find a local space and community useful, either as a new home or for regular activities, hit reply and let us know!
Finally (for now!), we want to warmly invite you on this journey with us. We want to know what you think, hear your hopes for this new community hub and generally keep you in the loop. But more than that, we want to say ‘hello!’ and get to know you, and we’re hoping this project will allow us to do just that. To find out more about us, please visit mrc-oxford.org or come and see us on any Sunday morning at SSMJ Primary School at the end of Bedford Street at 10:30am – we always have visitors and you’d be very welcome!
In our next post, we’ll show you around the building, let you know how the initial designs are coming on and give you the date for the community consultation.
