Inspiring past
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Exciting future
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Inspiring past 〰️ Exciting future 〰️
The vision planted at HTC in 1776 continues to grow nearly 250 years on
Inspired by the ministry begun at HTC by William Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect, we are renovating and renewing our church building to meet the needs of those it serves, today, and for the next 250 years. This project is called Revitalise 250.
We pray, as they did, that what we do will, by God’s grace, echo across London, the UK, and beyond.
After five years of obtaining planning permissions and fundraising, the build phase officially started in October 2024, and we plan to finish by Spring 2026, in time for the 250 celebrations in June. You can be part of this history, by supporting us.
What’s the latest?
R250 started as a £6.2 million revitalisation project that would extend far beyond the immediate worshipping community, benefitting Clapham and beyond. However, a change by the government in early 2025 meant that an expected VAT rebate of £1.1m was reduced overnight to £25,000. The project cost soared from £6.2m to £7.2m, leaving an extra £1m shortfall. By God’s grace, the response from HTC’s church family and friends has been staggeringly sacrificial and generous. As of July 2025, we need to raise the final £800,000 in the next few months.
Why R250?
We have a vision to see every life bearing fruit for Jesus and want to see this happen through trusting Jesus, and seeing Him transforming lives and growing the church.
HTC’s ministries have long needed more space and better facilities. As well as the Sunday services, there is strong demand for many mid-week groups: whether the Breakfast Club which serves over 150 people a week, or Clapham Saints sports gatherings – this church is for the people of South London. With better facilities we can have a big impact: for every £1 invested in a church building, £16 of social good is generated [National Churches Trust.]
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Our main entrance is currently dark, uninviting and it often becomes a bottleneck on a Sunday to people getting in and out of the building. The secondary south entrance (the Wilberforce Centre) is currently poor, and there are no welcoming fellowship areas in the church. We need to advertise our alive and active community.
We have planned a more visible and welcoming entry to celebrate that Jesus welcomes all. We are going to open up and make better use of the space in both the main entrance and the secondary south entrance and create a 'meet and greet' space with tea and coffee facilities. These changes will greatly improve the flow of people, and vastly improve accessibility -
By God’s grace, our church congregation has more than doubled to over 700 people on a Sunday, over the past ten years. This is incredible, but it means we have outgrown our building as it currently stands!
A lack of available and flexible spaces means significant calendar clashes as we seek to meet the needs of all in our community through various groups, courses or clinics. We also have to utilise other spaces, away from the church building to provide all our children's groups that support our Sunday services, which is far from ideal.
With the creation of more meeting spaces within the proposed extensions, we will be able to host all our Sunday children's groups at our church building, alongside our main services and be better positioned to meet the needs of our community at any time. -
Our building was last redeveloped in the 1990s, meaning the significant growth we have had since then has put extreme pressures on our buildings facilities. We frequently experience people queuing for our toilets, which are out-dated and in a poor state of repair. Additionally, our kitchen is falling apart and if we wish to cater for church events, we frequently need to hire-in additional equipment to make even the most basic of meals possible.
Our project will double the number of toilets, with them better located throughout our building and will install accessible toilet facilities that meet current standards. We are also incredibly excited to be installing a new kitchen facility that will significantly increase our catering capability and capacity.
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We want everyone who enters our building to feel included in the event or service that they are attending. Our current audio-visual system is old and has been modified many times, meaning it is actually operating at over-capacity, leading to unreliability.
An new and improved audio-visual system will better enable everyone in the building to clearly hear and see what is going on, including those in the galleries, so that the experience of all who enter the building is enhanced, and that the effort that is put into services and events tangibly translates to enjoyment of those in attendance
