This will be put towards redeveloping the 200-year-old church’s crypt into a community centre and carrying out major structural repairs and conservation work.

St Marylebone, just north of Oxford Street, is valued by the local community as a place of worship and home to the Healing and Counselling Centre and NHS Marylebone Health Centre. In addition to those resources, a community café, staffed by women who would otherwise be homeless, will be built as part of the project.

Vital community resource

[quote=Revd Canon Stephen Evans, Rector of St Marylebone]“I am delighted that HLF will help us to continue our work of changing lives by building and shaping community.”[/quote]

Revd Canon Stephen Evans, Rector of St Marylebone, said: “I am delighted that HLF will help us to continue our work of changing lives by building and shaping community.”

Stuart Hobley, Head of HLF London, said: “St Marylebone has been the backdrop to over a thousand years of London’s ever-changing landscape: from rural village to busy cityscape. Our funding will help conserve and showcase its fine architectural features, as well as tell the story of its transformation from Tyburn’s first parish church to an outwardly facing place of worship off thriving Marylebone High Street.

“We have been impressed by the Church’s desire to engage with a wide range of the local community and particularly welcome plans for a new crypt café.”

Looking to the future

Nearly 40 years on from the pioneering work of previous rector, Christopher Hamel-Cooke, St Marylebone continues its tradition as a welcoming and caring church. The new charity-led community café is at the heart of its ethos and will provide hospitality to some of the 250,000 people who visit every year as well as helping vulnerable women back into skilled employment.