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Eco-friendly transformation of city centre church
A once closed city centre church is now thriving thanks to an eco-friendly transformation
What does a warm church welcome look like? At St Margaret’s Church in Portsmouth, it’s friendliness, kindness, and what they call ‘the warmth of Christ’. It’s also a soft play area for children, a café, and bereavement care. And finally, it’s solar panels, underfloor heating and air source heat pumps. They all contribute to the warmth and welcome for which the church has become known.
But 10 years ago, there was a very different story. St Margaret’s had a small congregation of just 11 people. Surveyors had condemned the building and costs to repair it proved too expensive for the Parochial Church Council (PCC) to fund.
For two years it stood empty. Then, a group of people with a vision decided to call on neighbouring church, St Jude’s, to plant a congregation at St Margaret’s and serious consideration had to be given to the building itself.
“It was very sad,” says the former vicar, the Rev Fran Carabott. “The building had been deemed unsafe. For two years we worshipped in there with these big garden heaters to try to keep us warm. We were still going even when it was freezing cold. It’s amazing in there now. It is so warm and full of life.”
Some 120 people attend church on Sunday and the building is open for everything from a community day to a bike repair shop six, or sometimes seven days a week.
And this was the motivation behind installing so much green technology. “The most efficient way to use the space was to make the floor a big radiator,” says Fran.
The whole build project cost £350,000 of which the air source heat pumps cost £70,000. These run alongside a gas boiler, which tops up the heat when needed. The church acts as a warm hub for the community as a consequence.
“It has enabled us to reach so many people for Jesus,” says Fran. “For it to be a warm space is incredible.”
“It’s a nice place to come to now. I’m not wearing a puffa jacket, and we don’t have to hand out blankets anymore,” he says.
Operations Manager, Philippa Dawson, agrees, “People no longer walk past, they walk in. There’s a continuous stream of people every day.”
Forty-two solar panels were installed in April 2025. Repairing the roof and installing the panels cost £86,652, of which £29,700 came in grants. The church is already using all the electricity generated by them, which seems like an early success.
The church has had a few teething problems with the heat pumps, but is confident that the new solar panels will help to reduce energy costs next winter. And “we have a strategy to make things better, from switching the lights off and turning down the temperature one degree” says Philippa. Even just reducing the temperature by one degree, should result in a noticeable saving on energy bills.
Fran’s advice to other churches is to talk to other churches about what’s worked for them, which is the aim of the Church of England’s Demonstrator Church project.
St Margaret’s continues to press on with other environmental changes, aiming to install swift boxes and plant a garden, as well as changing to LED lighting later this year and switching from disposable cups to china ones. As the adverts say, every little helps.
The biggest change is how this has impacted the people. “It was an empty building that was becoming more and more run down and now it’s being used for everything that we can think to use it for. Everyone understands that it is a church,” says Philippa. “That’s what the mission is. That’s what the church should be.”
This article was written and published by the national Church of England Environment & NZC team, here. Rev Fran Carabott has since left St Margaret’s Church to become the vicar of Cosham and Wymering. Photos: Clare Kendall.