Step-free route
Step-free access is vital to St Anne’s future success. We are currently raising funds for the installation of a modern lift. Because of the building’s Grade I listing, it must be introduced in an appropriate and sympathetic manner. The lift will be sited at the west end of the church, in the oversized narthex or entry spaces that were such a distinctive feature of Hawksmoor’s designs. The northwest porch was rebuilt following the 1850 fire. Placing the lift here leaves the south west porch (not damaged by the fire) untouched.
An original door from the churchyard into the crypt will be used to access the step-free route. This will lead to the lift, which will take visitors up to the nave and gallery levels. The route within the crypt will go past the WWII air raid shelter and first aid station, to the toilets and kitchen in the parish room.
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There are significant challenges with using the original door from the churchyard into the crypt. This area of the crypt contains an unknown quantity of bodies, which were capped and sealed off in 1861. Before the lift is installed they will be excavated, researched and reburied appropriately. Because of heritage considerations and the complications involved in moving human remains, the project cost estimate for step-free access to St Anne’s Limehouse is £650,000.
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St Anne's huge crypt was used as a bomb shelter during the blitz, from 1940 to 1942. Remarkably, the church escaped significant structural damage. However, the nearby bomb blasts of two world wars have distorted all the panels of the Clutterbuck window.