The crystal tower - Wesley Grove - 06 August 2008

JERSEY EVENING POST Wednesday 6 August 2008 3

PLANS to convert a burnt-out chapel into flats have been submitted to Planning.
Julienne Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Style Group, have applied to build 62 flats at Wesley Chapel, Wesley Street, and preserve the front façade of the 19th century chapel. The chapel was badly damaged in a fire in January this year but had previously lain derelict and boarded up for a number of years. It was listed as a Site of Special Interest in February last year and had been used as an electrical wholesaler for 15 years prior to that. It has not been used as a chapel for at least two decades.


Architect firm Naish Waddington have designed the plans, which include one- and two-bedroom flats contained in two fourstorey apartment blocks on either side of the chapel façade and around a public square. Fragment Behind the main façade the remaining flats will be in a ninestorey mirrored glass building which slopes down to five storeys at the bottom. Naish Waddington director Mike Waddington said:

'It is such a theatrical building...We are going to leave the scorchmarks...

Unfortunately the remainder of the chapel was so badly damaged by the fire that only the front façade is worth saving. ‘This process will be costly, but the end result, a beautiful central square, will be worth the effort. ‘The apartments will not be minimum
in size and will offer a new concept in town living, with balconies, dedicated stores, shared roof gardens and a wonderful new public square. ‘Tucked into this very quiet part of central St Helier, most of the time people won’t need to use their car, which
is good news for the environment. ‘We have given careful consideration to the materials, colours and textures used with this project and are looking forward to working with mirrored glass.


‘The glass will be seamless and will reflect the sky and surrounding areas
in a very beautiful way.’