St Mary Redcliffe Project 450 RIBA 2 Stage End Report

4.4 SCHEME UPDATES
ARCHITECTURAL PROPOSALS
Retaining the strategic benefits of the RIBA 1 scheme, the RIBA 2 proposals remain:
• Primarily single-storey
• Exclusively at Undercroft level on the north-side to exploit the site’s section, remain entirely
below the level of the existing and much-celebrated tracery windows, and create a new base
for the church, itself expressive of the ‘red cliff’ on which the church is founded
• Composed of three inter-linked buildings to achieve the conceptual objective of creating a
stitch between the socio-economically divided communities of North and South Redcliffe,
and provide an Education / Learning Space and an Events Space within the South Churchyard
The design changes are therefore relatively modest and can be summarised by level, as follows:
UNDERCROFT
Based on this research, and with specific reference to the context of St Mary Redcliffe, the design team has
concluded that both the stair and its enclosing envelope are of Medium - Low Significance
It is therefore proposed to:
• Retain this stair in-situ, but:
• Create a new, fully-compliant stair external to the existing Vestry, within the Northside building
• Link this stair, via a new lightweight ‘bridge’ and a newly formed opening in the external fabric of the Vestry,
its exact position determined to impact only on replacement or substantially-re-tooled masonry
• Provide bearing for the new ‘bridge’ on the penultimate tread of the existing stair to create a level threshold
and enable the continued use of the existing C20 doorway into the Vestry, itself
Illustrated within the adjacent plan, these proposals are further explored within Section 4.6, and achieve the
following additional benefits:
• A Volunteer Room
• Increased Storage for silver safes, etc
• An enlarged Clergy Vestry and Vestry Back-Office
New Stair from Choir Vestry / Nave Level
• During the initial briefing process, the design team had been made aware of the Choir’s
preference to retain the existing ambulatory / processional route to the Chancel, and hence
to Nave level, via the current Vestry
• This was interpreted by the design team as dictating the continued use of the existing stair
from Canynges Kitchen and so, whilst the Choir Vestry itself is proposed to be relocated to a
new purpose-built facility, access via this stair was retained
• Ultimately, however, via both the Public Consultation and PCC Review during Sept 19,
members of the Choir reported that this stair is unsatisfactorily narrow, steep, and
particularly difficult to circulate safely when in robes
• On this basis, the design team consulted the documentary record to evaluate the significance
of this stair. As can be seen from the adjacent drawings, the stair:
Is not present in the C19 survey of the church
Is not indicated in the contemporary watercolour of the Vestry doorway, in the background
to which is, instead, a substantial fireplace, supporting both anecdotal reports that the stair,
itself, was inserted into the chimney breast and flue, and the hypothesis that the stair is C20,
presumably associated with Oatley’s 1930s restoration and, quite likely, a replacement for the
still extant mediaeval stair from the North Transept Undercroft to the North Aisle
Furthermore, whilst Jerry Sampson’s ‘North Wall - Archaeological Survey’ (2014) concludes
that the Vestry appears to be C15 in origin, with reference to the C19 restoration, it also
notes that, ‘In the eastern undercroft there appear(s) to be extensive renewal’