Our Halls and Rooms
The rooms and halls and other facilities at the back of our church have been redeveloped and modernised a lot recently. If you haven't visited us since the works were finished in Summer 2018 you'll be amazed at the transformation.
This area is now very modern, and the rooms are popular with community groups and children's parties as well as offering us great opportunities for fellowship, for church events and meetings. This is where you will find the toilets if you need them, refreshments after a service, Junior Church on Sundays, the office and the kitchen.
Rooms are available for hire, and are popular with lots of groups. As well are one-off bookings for parties and meetings for example, we host Scouting and Guiding groups, choir rehearsals, social clubs, art classes, dog training, dance groups, drama groups and Tiny Talk.
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To make a booking or ask about availability, or rates, or facilities you can contact our manager directly by clicking the email button:
If you come through the door from the church itself you enter the new wide central corridor, with a few steps on one side and a long shallow ramp on the other.
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There is some space here just outside the door into the church itself, and leading off this is the door into the Bennett Lounge (part of the original building which used to be called the church parlour. Next to the Bennett Lounge door three steps lead up to the Large Hall.
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The doors you can see on the left of this photograph lead to the toilets, which include an accessible toilet and baby change facilities.
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This corridor gives level access to all rooms and to the rear entrance into the car park.
Beyond the Large Hall, and past the kitchen is the Small Hall, now rebuilt and somewhat less small than it used to be. This hall also has a serving hatch into the kitchen, and the door on the right of the picture leads to a short corridor connecting it with the Large Hall.
This hall seems very popular with children's parties.
The refurbished Large Hall is slightly longer than it used to be because some cupboards have gone elsewhere, but it will still be familiar to people who have visited us before. There is a serving hatch and a door leading into the kitchen, and our fellowship meals and many church events happen here.
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The 2018 works included a corridor joining the Large Hall with the completely rebuilt small hall, so the two can be used together.
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The modernisation of this room includes those new windows down the left hand side (which open and close electronically, as do the blinds), and also the striking cross-shaped window in the end wall.
This is particularly noticeable from Lichfield Road, especially as night when the illuminated cross is very eye-catching.
Across the central corridor from the two halls and the kitchen a short side-corridor leads down to the two entirely new rooms, loosely known as rooms 1 and 2, at least for now.
These are unrecognisable from what was there before, with their high, curved wooden ceilings and floor-to-roof windows. Room 1 is a fairly small room, useful for reflection, small meetings, quiet time and prayer - it has also been adopted by the older group in Junior Church, which surely has nothing to do with the comfy sofa! Room 2 is larger, caters well for some of the community groups who visit us, and is sometimes where you will find the more relaxed evening worship. The partition wall between the two new rooms can be removed when we need a bigger space.
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These two rooms are pretty eye-catching from the outside too.
We are near the far end of the corridor from the church by now, which is also very different these days. This is where we have relocated the office, and we have created a welcoming entrance with a table and chairs which greet you as you come through the remodelled glass doors. A screen there will let you know about some of our upcoming events
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The end of the corridor is marked by a dramatic new stained glass window, a memorial to one of our members, John Nodding, who lost his battle with Motor Neurone Disease in September 2016 and whose sharp wit and bottomless kindness is much missed. The beautiful window was designed by John's daughter. John's moving biography, A Small Piece of Pure Gold, (Highland Books 2015) is highly recommended.
