Architect Axel Burrough of Levitt Bernstein (also responsible for other enlightened conversions including Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre and Birmingham's Ikon Gallery) has dropped a new building into the ruined shell of the old. Working with structural engineers Arup, Burrough devised a system of elegant steel branching columns to hold the massive weight of the new roof. Traditionally slated on the outside and timber-lined on the inside, the roof is in fact of super-dense concrete to prevent any noise getting out or in. Similarly, the original restored windows now have an extra internal layer of two-inch thick glass. The church is next to a busy road and under the flight path into Heathrow, but not a rumble will be heard.

The rough old internal walls, with all their characterful pock-marks, are lightly cleaned and left as they were - they aid the acoustics, which can be adjusted by means of simple felt blinds. Signs of the old subsidence, now arrested, are clearly evident. The floor is a durable wood-block finish. It's a sizeable, almost square space, with a gallery running round three sides in an echo of the church's original layout. But the Jerwood Hall, as it is known, is only one third of the total space. Downstairs in what used to be the crypt and part of the churchyard are rehearsal and workshop rooms, a Balinese gamelan orchestra, large café, library, offices and instrument store. The only real evidence of the transformation on the outside is a new entrance lobby to the north, which is is treated as a modern vestry - a simple cube of white Portland stone, to match the cleaned stone of the original.