Liverpool City Council has agreed to give a grant of almost £75,000 to help preserve the iconic ‘Bombed-out Church’, St Luke’s.
The £74,591 grant commissioned is almost half of the funding needed to begin the first stage of its urgent repairs. The remaining money will come from an English Heritage cash award.
The first of three stages will begin in the spring, involving repairs to stonework on the higher levels of the Berry Street building and installing a roof over the south tower vestry to protect it from water.
Ambrose Reynolds, Curator of Urban Strawberry Lunch, which has used the church for its events for the last 11 years, told JMU Journalism: “The work that they’re going to do is essential because if they don’t do that very soon, parts of the wall will fall down and there will be a massive, massive bill to fix it.”
The church has been on the English Heritage ‘buildings at risk’ for a number of years and the overall total cost for all three stages has been estimated at £500,000.
Both a conservation group and a community interest company have plans to fundraise the outstanding money.
Upon announcing the plans to start work in spring, Mr Reynolds added: “The feeling is like when you have been waiting for a bus for a long time and three turn up all at once. It’s more than excitement, its relief. The bus has finally arrived.”