St James the Less

A grant to help fund a project to restore and reconfigure St James the Less Parish Centre. It had not been in use since December 2010, due to the heating and electrical systems having failed. The project reconfigures the layout, creating better-sized rooms, accessible toilet facilities and a bigger kitchen with serving hatches. Once the project is completed, the building will be able to be used for a large number of different purposes, including the homelessness meal that had been running fortnightly at St James the Less for many years but, without a venue from the start of 2013, had been forced to temporarily close. St James the Less, Pimlico comprises two adjoining buildings; the main church and the attached Parish Centre. The site is a Conservation Area within the Lillington and Longmoore Gardens Estate, a social housing development of around 1,000 homes. The church itself dates from 1861 and was designed in a highly ornate, polychromatic, Victorian Gothic style, and includes a huge mosaic by G.F. Watts and an ornate stone pulpit by Thomas Earp. The church is situated within the UKÕs 10% most deprived areas. The church has run a meal for the homeless for many years but this is temporarily on hold until refurbishment. It also runs a weekly Toddler Group and is planning to run a community fete in the estate gardens adjacent to the church, in conjunction with other local groups.