Plans in for Manchester church with growing congregation
World Mission Agency has applied to Manchester City Council to demolish a dilapidated convent in Blackley and erect a 1,500-capacity church in its place.
To be christened Winners Chapel, the 2.5-acre site sits off Chain Road, and would host a 10,000 sq ft auditorium.
Mojo Architects has drawn up the plans for the church, with Zerum acting as the planning agent.
The church will be two-storeys and include a ground level chapel, counselling rooms, classrooms, a bookshop, wellness centre, as well as a café and kitchen.
An additional multipurpose community hall, a training centre, a day nursery, and children’s play area will be constructed.
The first floor will provide additional seating for the chapel, junior and teen mini-churches, offices, and more classrooms.
The Winners Chapel on Salford’s Broughton Lane was inaugurated in 2010 and a growing congregation has highlighted the need for the church’s expansion.
The project’s consultant team includes Miller Goodall, Tyler Grange, Orion Heritage, Arbtech, Harley Haddow, Mosodi, GIA, Roscoe Engineering, Land Studio, and Jensen Hughes.
To view the application, use the reference number 141622/FO/2024 on Manchester City Council’s planning portal.
Replace one eyesore with another – what a horrible design!
By Heritage Action
That’s like a small arena being plonked on your doorstep. No councillor’s no.
By Anonymous
Good amount of solar panels.
By Geoff
I think it is a brilliant idea to serve the local Community in this area
By Khalil Ahmad
Absolutely horrible design,don’t look like any church to me,and absolute abomination,Don’t build that monstrosity PLEASE.
By Anonymous
we don’t want church built on the old convent we want something built for the people of blackley but we don’t get a say we had enough of big lorrys going up and down shakeing house’s there’s plenty of other places they could build there church not on are door step
By Anna Lawler
It’s a decent quality scheme, but entirely the wrong site at the end of a quiet residential road with very restricted access.
The site was originally marketed as suitable for sheltered/extra care housing similar to what the remaining convent is used for, for which there is local demand and given the limitations of the site, so it’s cynical of a church with no existing base in the local community to come in with this which will be used very intensely, particularly evenings and weekends.
Also no reference here to the greenspace which would be replaced by a giant car park, counting against any good all the solar panels might do.
By Chain Reaction
Seems like a wonderful project to add to the local community, hope it all goes well
By Anonymous
An interesting design for a contemporary church building with a quirky roofscape and interesting details.
Not that it will be seen from anywhere as it’s basically hidden at the back end of Blackley amongst the trees behind the schools.
By Anonymous
Awful design terrible idea.
By Anonymous
Simply amazing, NIMBYs now up in arms against a new place of worship, a community hall, a training centre, a nursery and a children’s play area.. replacing an existing dilapidated place of worship?
Of course, this bucolic spot soon to be ruined is.. 250 meters from a motorway?
If this doesn’t meet exacting standards, what on earth would?
Salford’s loss is Blackley’s gain given the sheer volume of charitable work Winners Chapel have been doing. Wishing the congregation well!
By Anonymous
There is nothing wrong with the scheme in principle, or the design. The issue is with the site which has very restricted access at the end of a dead-end residential road, was flagged up when it went on the market.
A regular-sized place of worship wouldn’t be an issue, but 1500 seats takes it well into cathedral size, with all of the extras making it the size of a large supermarket with the associated big car park.
It’s a shame more effort wasn’t put into finding a more suitable site for something that seems quite worthwhile. Any attempt to mitigate the impact through conditions is just going to lead to more headaches down the line.
By Anonymous
Yes some of the NIMBY reactionary comments on this thread are mind boggling
By Anonymous
@January 09, 2025 at 4:11 pm
By Anonymous
Here here! Whilst the church design could be better, charismatic evangelical churches like this one do lots for their local areas. And they tend to actually be full.
I sometimes wonder what the motivation is of some posters on here.
By Rye