A newly built vicarage in Wembley completed by Galliford Try for the London Diocesan Fund in partnership with LHA-ASRA Group, has become one of the first vicarages in the UK to achieve Level 6 of The Code for Sustainable Homes.
The carbon negative St Johns Vicarage forms part of a £4 million mixed use development built by Galliford Try which also includes 12 apartments, 8 terraced houses and a community centre built in the vicinity of St John's Church, originally designed in the 19th century by Sir George Gilbert Scott.
The eco-exemplar vicarage features controlled water usage, rainwater harvesting, vertical-bore ground source heat pumps, whole-house ventilation with heat recovery and photovoltaic arrays. Each of the homes within the development will achieve Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4, whilst the community centre will achieve a BREEAM “Excellent” rating. A Rain Water Harvesting system will serve toilets and laundry areas with Photo-voltaic panels contributing to the 20% renewable offset requirement.
Galliford Try Partnerships Sustainability Design Manager Alan Wyper explained: “Unlike many carbon neutral new homes, we have adopted traditional build techniques for this development. It has also been designed almost entirely by our in-house teams.”
Now Galliford Try will use the vicarage’s eco template to build new affordable homes as part of a major regeneration programme in Gateshead with the Home Group and as a platform for the 21 carbon-negative dwellings at Reed Street in South Shields which will be built for Four Housing Group.
To mark the completion of the vicarage, a blessing was recently performed by the Archdeacon of Northolt, the Venerable Rachel Treweek.
William Cornall, group director of development and assets with LHA-ASRA group, the social housing group behind the project, said: "Identifying good quality sites for much needed affordable housing is always a real challenge in London.
“However, by working creatively this development clearly demonstrates what can be achieved, even in these times of constrained government funding.
The outcome is that the church has a stunning new vicarage, and people in the Wembley area have some urgently needed affordable accommodation."