London & South East

King’s Church Amersham

Raans Road, Amersham, King’s Church

Situated on Raans Road, Amersham, King’s Church is a magnificent new building, designed specifically for use by members of, and visitors to, King’s Church and with opportunities for use by the local community.

The £4 million church was constructed as part of a joint development with Cala Homes and was completed at the end of 2013.

Jarvis Contracting of Harpenden was the main contractor on the project, whilst Byrom Clark Roberts was the architect. Both parties were selected after an extensive interview process had taken place.

The new building was financed through a mix of voluntary giving by the church membership over many years, the sale of a previous building and through a bank loan.

Discussing the project, King’s Church Amersham Project Leader, Mike Peters, said:

“We are a non-denominational, charismatic, bible believing church with approximately 225 adult church members, with around 40 to 60 children and young people aged between 0 to 8. We are very active in areas of social responsibility and action including running a free furniture project, foodbank and we are home to 15 junior Saturday football squads.

Raans Road, Amersham, King’s Church

“The new building was built on a redundant school field that was vacated when two secondary schools amalgamated on one site over 30 years ago. It was used for informal recreation, but retained by Buckinghamshire County Council and made available for sale for predominantly residential use during the mid-00s.

“Our building was part of a joint development with Cala Homes when planning permission was granted for 83 dwellings and a new church in February 2009 – it was a site of choice.”

Mike added:

“We had searched for a site for over 30 years in a very expensive area, but when sites came along with the potential for residential development we were always outbid. However, when Cala Homes were told they needed a community use as part of their application for housing, a partnership was formed and we never looked back.

“King’s Church Amersham is open now and several church-based events have already taken place.”

Raans Road, Amersham, King’s Church

King’s Church Amersham is a part single storey, part two storey building covering an area of 1,500 sq metres. The ground floor level includes a main auditorium, reception, kitchen, café, meeting and ancillary rooms and toilets, whilst the first floor includes church offices, youth and children’s rooms, a dedicated prayer room and counselling room.

The ceiling in the main auditorium is on suspended ‘clouds’ with extensive use of coloured LED lighting. Additional features at the church include underfloor heating and a large baptistery pool.

Mike commented:

“The interior is amazing, after seeking specific interior design advice in key locations, including the auditorium, cafe/reception/toilets and the prayer room.”

King’s Church Amersham was built from a steel frame construction, with facing brickwork, glazing and render. The building includes metal casement windows and shallow pitched metal sheet roof.

There is a platform lift which will transport users of the building between floors, and a stair lift in the main auditorium to access the raised stage/platform. Safety and security has also been ensured with the installation of CCTV systems, intruder alarms and smoke detectors.

Raans Road, Amersham, King’s Church

A small amount of soft and hard landscaping works completed the project, including a generous paved area at the front of the building which provides level access to the main entrance. A 100-space car park has also been installed on site with full provision for disabled parking spaces.

Throughout the course of the project, good, clear communication with site neighbours was paramount. A number of news letters were prepared by both the King’s Church and Jarvis Contracting, and the two closest neighbours were given the opportunity to walk around the building prior to its formal opening, once it was safe to do so.

Mike said:

“The whole project has been amazing, even in the face of the length of time involved on our ‘journey’. To get an acre and a quarter of land in Amersham as part of a mixed use scheme is amazing in itself! Everyone is saying ‘wow’ when they come into the building and especially the main auditorium.

Raans Road, Amersham, King’s Church

“Despite being in town planning for over 34 years, I have never been involved in anything that has produced the quality we have now at King’s Church Amersham. The relationship with our main contractor Jarvis Contracting was also extraordinary. They were superb all the way through.”

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