Award-Winning Conversion Brings New Life To Historic Building

The Challenge

Having worked with Acoustical Control Consultants (then Belair Research) on several other projects, Paul Henry contacted us when his architectural practice was appointed to convert a Grade II listed former cinema to a church.

In addition to the obvious challenges of the internal acoustics, the church administrators needed to be able to record services and other events with high quality sound, and the original wall and ceiling surfaces needed to be preserved.

Moreover, our solutions also had to work externally, ensuring that occupants of neighbouring premises would not be disturbed by the church’s activities, nor from external air conditioning plant.

Our Work

Our team worked with various personnel from the local authority who were involved throughout the project, including the Conservation Officer, Environmental Health, Planning, and Building Control Departments. Despite the stringent requirements to preserve historic features, we made best use of what flexibility there was such as with floor coverings and furniture to create the right internal acoustic environment.

The Result

Our work resulted in an award-winning building that preserves the historic features of a classic cinema, but works very well for its new purpose a large church for a congregation of 500, with a state-of-the-art audio visual recording and production system.