New Meeting House Project

Briefly, purpose-built Quaker Meeting Houses traditionally have a large central room for worship. The rooms usually have good acoustics and are soundproof, as Quaker worship is largely silent, with spoken ministry from time to time. The furnishing is extremely simple, often with a table in the middle and chairs or benches set facing inwards around it. Natural light is a key element in design. We have no ornamentation, statues, crucifixes or stained glass.

Friends House has books with plans for all the Quaker Meeting Houses in the UK, which we invite you to view, by way of background, although we do not wish simply to replicate what has gone before. They are available at Friends House Library, 173-175 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ.
Opening hours: 10 – 5 Tuesday to Friday.

Information about Quakers and their style of worship is easily available online. The following link may be particularly useful as it pertains to Quakers in the UK.

www.quaker.org.uk

We will be reviewing the submissions to identify an architect that we will work with to take the project forward. For that reason we are not currently looking for design suggestions; we are looking for architects whose working style and philosophy predispose them to work easily with Hammersmith Friends (Quakers).

The chosen architect will have London access and be interested in designing and overseeing the building of our new place of worship.

Six firms will be chosen by the Meeting House Committee within three months after the closing initial submission date (29 May 2009) and will subsequently be invited to present to a panel which will include both Quakers and independent expert consultants. The final selection be made by December 2009.

Any questions that you have may be submitted to interest@hammersmithmeeting.com where we will do our best to answer them.

All submissions should be limited to 6 power point slides submitted electronically on line to interest@hammersmithmeeting.com and 4 printed copies sent to:

Hammersmith Meeting House Project

Six Weeks’ Meeting, Friends House

173-175 Euston Road

London NW1 2BJ

Submissions will be accepted until May 29, 2009

- The Meeting House Committee

Questions and Answers:

Where is the proposed site?

The proposed replacement site is situated at 30-32 Bradmore Park Road in Hammersmith. The site is owned by Hammersmith and Fulham Council and the Council's Cabinet will be considering a report at their meeting on 15 June 2009 which recommends a land swap with our present Meeting House site in Nigel Playfair Avenue. Until the Council's formal decision has been ratified, it will not be possible to gain access to the site.