Over the past couple of years, we’ve had the pleasure of working with property directors, surveyors, and project managers from the Church of England, supplying shower pods for accommodation renovations across the dioceses (geographical regions containing multiple local parish churches, overseen by a bishop) of Ely, Suffolk, and Oxford.

Aside from its spiritual responsibilities, the Church of England is a large-scale employer and property owner, with 20,000 ministers in active service in 2020, as well as 7,000 retired and semi-retired clergy. Many of these staff (and their families, in the case of married clergy) are housed in properties owned by the church, in the vicinity of the ministers’ place of worship.

Think of a Church of England vicarage and it is often a grand 18^{th or} 19^th-century manorial building that comes to mind (e.g. this lovely Grade II near Stratford upon Avon), but this is far from typical in 2024. Most of these beautiful historic buildings have been sold to private owners or heritage organisations, and modern clergy are usually accommodated in parsonages built in the 1950s and 1960s.

In recent years, many of these mid-century homes, built to the style and standard of the time, have fallen in need of renovation and repair. This coincides with a drive for greater sustainability in ecclesiastical buildings and parsonages owned by the C of E, with a rigorous set of design standards for new parsonages published by the church in 2017.

Dioceses across the country are now looking at ways to improve the energy efficiency of their properties, as well as making them more comfortable and affordable for incumbent clergy.

Shower Pods For Church Accommodation

In many cases, our shower pods have proven ideal for these renovation projects ongoing across the church’s estate.

• The flexible design of our shower pods makes them amenable to a variety of bathroom footprints, from older refurbished 1950s properties to modern new builds – and even the occasional historic rectory, too!
• Shower pods are extremely cost-effective when purchased at scale for ongoing renovations, with a simplified bill of materials and fewer labour requirements compared to traditional tile and tray shower cubicles.
• Shower pods are more effective at minimising the risk of leaks and of containing moisture within the wash area than conventional showers, lowering dampness levels within the property, and streamlining the church’s maintenance requirements.
• When installing new shower pods across the dioceses, installations can be managed in block release so as to minimise disruption to residents and avoid the need to store excessive materials on site.
  
  

Find Out More

If you’d like to find out more about our shower pods and how they can support your accommodation renovation project, please get in touch with one of our knowledgeable team today!

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