Restoration Man shines the TV spotlight on Harrogate chapel

Design enthusiast Mark Hinchliffe has always had penchant for the weird and wonderful so when he spotted a vast and ornate Wesleyan chapel for sale in central Harrogate, he came up with an ambitious plan to turn it into his perfect home.

The journey, which has taken over three years so far, will be screened on Channel 4 on Thursday, when Restoration Man, George Clarke, will tell a tale of determination, derring do and dreaming big.

The property project started in 2013 when, against the odds, Mark managed to buy the grade two listed chapel and adjoining Sunday school from the Methodist Council.

The former place of worship is a piece of prime real estate in Yorkshire’s premier property hot spot, but developers who wanted to turn it into flats were refused planning permission. Self-builders who viewed it were frightened by the design issues and the possibility of hidden horrors like woodworm, rot and worse that are often waiting to thwart those who tackle ecclesiastical property.

“I just had to have it. It looks like a Roman temple and it is very ornate for a chapel. My idea was to preserve as much as I could rather than carve it up,” said Mark, who sold his own home and secured a loan to buy the building.

The exchange of contacts took over a year thanks to the searches and the fact it was protected for community use. When he finally got the keys, Mark converted the Sunday school into a four bedroom home and sold it to fund the most challenging part of the project.

The chapel, built in 1896, and its enormous amphitheatre-style heart strikes fear into most visitors who confess that they wouldn’t know what to do with it. Mark loves the drama of the space, as does George Clarke. The architect-turned-TV presenter is enamoured by the building and the exciting design that is peppered with eccentricity.

Work began in earnest last September and is almost half complete. The enormous stained glass windows that were bowed, thanks to decades of sunshine that melted the lead, have been restored at a cost of £8,000.

The pulpit remains as a major feature, while the communion rail will be converted into a shelf and the space left by the organ is for formal dining. Some of the pews are being recycled by furniture maker Anthony Hartley, who has been commissioned to make kitchen units from them. Above, there are six bedroom suites on a first floor that was created by extending out from what was a slim balcony. It doesn’t encroach too far into 60ft high atrium, which will be lit by a two metre wide chandelier made by avante-garde designer, Mark Brazier-Jones.

Heating what Mark describes as “a freezer” was an expensive problem. It was solved by installing a £14,000 biomass boiler that heats 43 cast iron radiators that he found in France. His lifelong passion for sourcing and collecting vintage treasures mean that furnishing the enormous space is not an issue. His finds include columns from an Indian Palace, a boar’s head, religious statues, moose antlers and a redundant missile that he intends to make into an art installation. He has also been buying large-scale paintings to hang on the walls. The patrons who paid for the chapel would no doubt approve. Many Wesleyan buildings are simple and primitive in design but Harrogate’s is Italianate and decorative.

“There are the names of three ladies on the stone outside. I suspect they liked a bit of ‘bling’ and I like to think they’d be happy with what I’m doing,” said Mark, who has spent £250,000 on buying the chapel and believes the final cost of the conversion work will be at least £450,000.

To help fund the upkeep, he plans to let some of the bedroom suites out for B&B.

“I hope to have it all finished by May and I can’t wait,” he said “It’s taken a while but it was never going to be straightforward and to be honest if it had been easy I’d have been bored.”

*Restoration Man is on tonight, Thursday, January 28, at 9pm on Channel 4.