LONDON, ENGLAND.- What role can churches play in urban regeneration? What can be done to revitalise an underused church in an area of deprivation? As part of Architecture Week 2005, English Heritage, Matthew Lloyd Architects, the Diocese of London and the Shaftesbury Society are co-sponsoring A City To Dwell In - a seminar to discuss these challenges which draws on issues of faith, community and architecture.

The seminar, aimed at everyone from church leaders, church members and architects to the general public, will be held at St Paul’s, Bow in London’s East End – an exemplar of church-led redevelopment . The large, grade II-listed Victorian church surrounded by modern council estates stood empty and crumbling for years until, in 1996, a dynamic young vicar, the Revd Philippa Boardman, stepped in. The following year English Heritage gave grants for emergency repairs to the roof and a feasibility study into how the interior could be reused. The church raised £20,000 itself through jumble sales and secured £3.5 million from funding bodies including the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The challenging brief for the architect was to allow the main body of the church to function as a place of worship and preserve the character of the existing space while also providing crèche and catering facilities, a fitness and therapy centre, meeting rooms and an art gallery. Matthew Lloyd Architects designed a radical but sustainable architectural solution – a steel and timber ark-like structure which provides an extra two floors inside the church without sacrificing its sense of light and space or its historic interest. St Paul’s is now a thriving church with a growing congregation which provides a new heart for the community of Bow - a model for future church use.

A City to Dwell In will ask how the denominations, Anglicans, Methodists and Roman Catholics, as well as other faiths, are going to tackle the problems facing their historically significant but underused buildings. How can they stop these valuable parts of our national heritage becoming so run-down, under-funded and ultimately redundant and instead bring them back to life as a positive focus for their communities?

Rob Gregory, architect and Assistant Editor of Architectural Review, will chair the seminar and speakers will include the architect Matthew Lloyd, Chris Erskine of the Shaftesbury Society and Seedbed Trust, Gordon MacLaren, architect of the Bromley by Bow Centre, Michael Bye, Head of Property at the Diocese of London, and Ian Serjeant of the Methodist Church.