St George’s Garrison Church, Woolwich, was built between 1862 and 1863 as the chapel for the Royal Artillery. It was commissioned by Lord Herbert, the Secretary of State for War, and based on designs by architect T.H. Wyatt.

In 1944 St George’s was damaged by a V1 flying bomb. Unlike the Guard’s Chapel, it was never rebuilt, leaving its fine decorative features vulnerable to damage. Historic England added the site to its Heritage at Risk Register as early as 2000, and subsequently introduced the Trust to the MOD, who needed advice on how best to manage the conservation of the site. To enable us to secure grants from charitable trusts and foundations, the freehold of the site was transferred from Defence Estates to the Trust in 2011.

Following the Phase I project (read more about Phase I here), which introduced a glulam roof over the fragile east end and the conservation of the Salviati mosaics, the Phase II project focussed on stabilising all remaining historic fabric. Specialist conservation architects Purcell developed this programme of work and also led the delivery of the Phase II capital works.

The Phase II project commenced on-site in January 2018 and was delivered into two phases: phase 2a was completed in April 2018, and phase 2b commenced shortly after, and was completed by April 2019.