Chapel renovation project wins prestigious preservation award

A project to renovate Harris Manchester College’s Chapel has won a prestigious local preservation award.

The Oxford Preservation Trust Awards, which were established 48 years ago, celebrate the most successful examples of historic conservation in the city and are judged by a panel of architects, planners and historians. This year 21 projects were shortlisted across six categories. 

HMC scooped the Trust’s “Adaptive Re-use" prize, which recognises projects that have “breathed new life into an existing building, adapting them for modern life while retaining their historic character and significance”. The work saw off stiff competition from other renovation projects undertaken by Pembroke College and Trinity College.  

HMC’s Chapel, which is built in the arts and crafts style and dates back to the 1890s when the College first came to Oxford, is home to a range of historic features. They include its celebrated stained-glass windows, designed by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, and organ pipes painted by Morris & Co.  

(From left) Kate Wilson, Supernumerary Fellow and PA to the Principal, Kate Alderson-Smith, Pye Fellow and Librarian, and Mark Longford, Clerk of Works, with representatives from Jessop and Cook Architects and the Oxford Preservation Trust

_{Image: Ed Nix / Oxford Preservation Trust}

Completed in February, the project was made possible by the generous support of benefactors from across the College community. The work saw the installation of new lighting, wiring and live-streaming technology, the renovation of the interior’s original features, and the replacement of the floor coverings with a new carpet made from recycled plastic bottles designed to enhance the building’s aesthetics and sound quality. 

The prize was revealed at an awards ceremony on 12 November, held at St John’s College. Accepting the award for HMC were Mark Longford, Clerk of Works, Kate Alderson-Smith, Pye Fellow and Librarian, and Kate Wilson, Supernumerary Fellow and PA to the Principal.  

Mark Longford commented: “We are all absolutely overjoyed to receive a 2025 Oxford Preservation Trust Award. Our thanks go to everyone involved: the College’s Governing Body, the donors who funded the work, the Chapel project committee, the HMC project team and contractors, and all the members of the HMC community, including our staff and volunteers, who contributed and supported the work. Everyone collaborated to ensure the project ran smoothly and met our aim of ensuring such a wonderful historical space was not only preserved but adapted for use today and in the future.”