Of place and buildings

Laurence Demarco writes in his latest email from senscot (www.senscot.net) of his experience of place - in fact of being at the same spot, in different times and different buildings. This weekend I was reflecting on CCH but not as an organisation, but as a building. This is probably inspired by the act we have an architect working on determining the specifications of our planned refurbishment.

It has always struck me that CCH as a building has a very special history, built by subscription in the 1920's, completed in 1923, with the inheritance even then of the Lewis Organ (itself built in 1889). Built with the foresight to be a community resource, which 80 years later is exactly what it does full time. Oh and the religious link is not lost either, as it now hosts three different groups across the week.

The challenge of the refurbishment is to update the building for 21st century use, but not lose the heritage of the place, and it's character - for we are only stewards of it.