The retrofit and rework of a Grade II-listed Georgian terrace on Brixton Road provides a range of accommodation and community space for the Fathers, who serve the Italian and other immigrant communities.
The scheme consists of a presbytery and hostel accommodation, offices, a meeting room and flexible community space that can host pastoral support, community events, language classes and other activities. The project has also included a full upgrade of building services.
The original presbytery now features a mansard storey, constructed using traditional techniques. Brickwork has been repointed with lime mortar, render repaired and repainted and the timber sash windows restored. The design team also replaced 1970s joinery with bespoke front doors and repaired corroded decorative metalwork. Internally, both the priests’ quarters and hostel rooms have been reconfigured and provided with en suite facilities.
A new rear extension in stock brick, lime mortar and precast details provides a glazed meeting room and flexible community space opening onto the courtyard. Plant is concealed behind timber louvres, while details include a fluted stone column in one corner referencing the building’s Georgian heritage.
The Scalabrini Fathers, founded in Italy in 1887 by Bishop Giovanni Battista Scalabrini of Piacenza – or the Missionaries of Saint Charles Borromeo to give them their formal title – were founded to support Italian emigrants who had crossed the Atlantic. It now operates in over 30 countries, serving migrants, refugees and displaced people worldwide. The mission on the Brixton Road was originally established in the 1960s, first supporting Italian migrant workers and later Filipino and Portuguese communities, too.
The project is designed to provide what the architects describe as ‘dignified’ hostel accommodation while celebrating and complementing the existing Georgian architecture – demonstrating how the latter can be adapted and extended without losing its character.
Architect’s view
The building was in very poor shape – so much so that the fathers couldn’t operate the hostel, to say nothing of their own living conditions, which were far from ideal.
We were originally approached with a view to replacing the existing building but the project rapidly pivoted towards a careful and sensitive restoration of the late-Georgian terrace with a refined community space extension playing off Georgian motifs. Thus a fluted stone column marks the acute angle of the community space, referencing both the building’s durability and Georgian heritage.
Giles Heather, co-founder, Goldstein Heather
 
Project data
Location Brixton Road, London SW9
Start on site May 2023
Completion January 2025
Gross internal floor area 562m2
Form of contracte JCT Standard Building Contract 2016
Construction cost £3.1 million
Architect Goldstein Heather Architecture
Client The Scalabrini Fathers
Structural engineer MDA Consulting Civil and Structural Engineers
M&E consultant Integration
QS Quantem
Project manager Colins Management Services
Principal designer Goldstein Heather
Approved building inspector H+O Consulting
Main contractor Bryen & Langley
CAD software used MicroStation