It's PAYE day for St Mary's

The team from Historic England, members of the PCC of St Mary's and architect Alex Veal.

Last August, St Mary’s received an unprecedented £639,064 from the Heritage at Risk Capital Fund, led by Historic England and funded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. The fund prioritises heritage sites serving disadvantaged communities. Few churches can match St Mary’s social history. Known as the ‘Cabbies’ Church after standing shoulder to shoulder with striking hackney cabmen in the late 19th century, in the 20th century it was the birthplace of the St Pancras Housing Improvement Society, with social reformer Fr Basil Jellicoe ensuring local people were decently housed.

Over the last few months, the church, with strong support from the Diocese of London, has been busily raising additional funds so that a first phase of works can begin. Targets have been hit and PAYE Stonework and Restoration have been appointed main contractors, with work starting just before Christmas and due to be completed on or around St Mary’s bicentennial celebrations on 11 May 2026.

Over the last few weeks the scaffolding has gone up to cover most of the West Front.

Louise Brennan, Director of Regions, Historic England, said: "We are delighted that St Mary’s Church Somers Town is now ready to begin essential repair works, supported through the Heritage At Risk Capital Fund programme. The appointment of PAYE represents a major milestone, and we look forward to seeing the vital conservation work get underway."

Architect Alex Veal explains more about the restoration approach: "ARTArchitects is delighted to oversee the first phase of major repairs to the West Front of St Mary’s Church, Somers Town. This important project marks the culmination of several years’ work with the Parish, during which detailed surveys, holding repairs and careful site management have enabled the Church to remain open and in active use through a period of considerable uncertainty. The project will restore the main part of the West Front to good condition, and will involve extensive repairs to fragile stonework, conservation cleaning of the masonry, re-pointing of brickwork, and repairs to joinery and metalwork."

The last few weeks have seen scaffolding go up to cover most of the West Front. St Mary's has little surrounding land, so the site office is located on the scaffolding above Aldenham Street. Now that works are underway, let's hope for good weather to help speed this complicated job along!