Rylands Hall, Stretford (originally named the Union Church) was built in 1867 and is Grade II Listed. The building is named after John Rylands who at the time reigned supreme in Manchester as the ’Cotton King’. His strong Christian ideals and philanthropy meant he used his wealth to provide the people of Stretford with a number of public buildings such as this one.

Interestingly, this project brought back into use a Listed building by re-establishing it as a Place of Worship. Although the building had undergone extensive alterations in the 1980s into offices, HSA guided the client to ensure that the new design would, wherever practicable, celebrate the features of the original design. This included siting the main sanctuary on the first floor to benefit from the arched windows, and the removal of non-original subdivisions.  A further key issue we successfully addressed was the resolution of restricted parking arrangements and mitigation of noise break-out to the neighbouring residential area - with the church having a large congregation this was always going to be a controversial issue to resolve.

The internal adaptations also ensured the building met the requirements of the Equality Act within the constraints of its Listed status, with improved circulation, and sanitary provision.