New Projects
NEW! Opening end July - new retirement apartments in Luff Mews in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex.
Coming soon! Eight warden-managed, assisted living apartments in a new complex in this friendly sea-side town ‘through the gates’ in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex.
Luff Mews is close to an attractive shopping centre; also near bus stops and with easy access to a range of facilities. It is on the same site as the Ernest Luff residential care homes, and a modern Day Centre providing activities and companionship for older people.
There are four apartments for rental and four for leasehold purchase at £115,000.
Contact: Manager Lynne Durrant, on 0300 303 1495. Email. Lynne.durrant@pilgrimsfriend.org.uk
HAPPI Housing Award for Pilgrim Gardens
Pilgrim Gardens, the new housing complex for older Christians being built by the Pilgrims’ Friend Society in Leicester has won a prestigious Housing Design Award.
The HAPPI award - Housing our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) Award was announced on 21st June at the annual Housing Design Awards. The awards are sponsored by organisations such as the NHBC, RIBA, RICS, and the Homes and Communities Agency.
The HAPPI award recognises innovative approaches to the design of older people’s housing, particularly the way the design affects the lives of individual home-dwellers.
Pilgrim Gardens topped its rivals on several points. Judges noted the spaciousness of the design and the good balance of privacy and community. They also thought that having the Evington care home on the same site enhanced a sense of life-long care and security.
Photograph: Andy Walsh, Director of Property Services, third on left. Others, l-r David Behan, Department of Health’s Director General of Social Care; Clare Cameron, PRP Architects, Andy Walsh, Mary Hutchison PRP architects, Mark Hanks and Craig Stevens, Bramall Construction.
The building uses environmentally friendly materials. It will have a low carbon footprint, including a combined heat and power (CHP) generator that recycles heat from exhaust gases for use within the building.
Pilgrim Gardens was designed by PRP architects, the firm that designed Pilgrim Homes’ extra care housing in West Yorkshire in 2005. Royd Court opened with 58 apartments in 2006 and is now an established Christian neighbourhood, with a range of interests and social activities.
Apartments have generously sized individual balconies with folding screens to protect from the weather. They also have plenty of natural light and ventilation from a ‘dual aspect’ design with windows back and front, and most also have the benefit of deck access.
Director of Property Services, Andy Walsh, said, ‘We are thrilled with the Award for Pilgrim Gardens. Our charity has provided housing for the elderly for over 200 years, and we are delighted that in their design, PRP architects were able to encapsulate the best of our knowledge and experience.
‘Privacy and community, independence and support are the keystones of our housing, and PRP’s design has captured those elements, and others, extremely well.’
Pilgrim Gardens is being built next to the 44 acre Evington Park in Evington, Leicester, and is due to open in Spring 2013. Apartments are available for rental and for leasehold purchase, with prices ranging from £115,000 to £149,000.
To take a virtual tour of Pilgrim Gardens, click here. For a copy on DVD use our contact form, click here.
Pilgrim Gardens: UPDATE - May 2012
The heavy, continual rain last month did not put a damper on things or slow down progress. The foundations are down and the building is beginning to take shape.
In a few weeks’ time there will be an Information Office on site, where you can view the architects’ drawings and plans, and ask questions. Prices start at £115,000. Rental prices will be released shortly.
Each generation has its challenges, but old age has more than most! It makes sense to prepare. Opening is scheduled for Spring 2013, but you can walk through the apartments and the gardens now, with our new, virtual tour (see tje video at the top of this page).
If you would like to know more, please contact us through the form on this website, or email to pilgrim.gardens@pilgrimsfriend.org.uk, or write to our Director of Housing and Care, Maureen Sim, at Pilgrims’ Friend Society, 175 Tower Bridge Road, London SE1 2AL. Don’t forget to let us have your name, address, telephone number and email address.
Work has begun! - Pilgrim Gardens
It began as a dark, dank day, but on February 13th the sun decided to come out to shine on builders, Bramall Construction, as they moved on to the site at Evington.
A temporary welded wire mesh fence went up around the work area and the essentials were put in place - a portable workman’s mess room and welfare unit, complete with its own inbuilt generator. The wire fence meant that residents in the Home across the way had a good view of the day’s activities. The usual, more solid site hoardings were erected the following day, but a ‘visibility window’ means the curious can peep through and see what is going on. And the hoarding has been arranged to allow access to the grass area immediately around the impressive large tree that is being retained as part of the new gardens.
When Pilgrim Gardens is completed, there will be thirty-one, spacious apartments for retirement, each purpose designed for assisted living with fitted kitchens and a ‘wet’ shower room. and able to take wheelchairs.
The garden will have a shaded seating area, and in the complex there will be an attractive, communal lounge.
If you'd like more information you can use the contact form on this website.
Sponsor a paving block for the new garden in Shottermill House!
Our fundraising campaign is off to a good start! We can begin to buy some paving blocks! Please help us buy more before the warm weather arrives! Shottermill cares for 31 older folk. At present the patio outside the dining room at Shottermill House is a good place for them to enjoy the fresh air and the garden when the weather is good, but it is small and a bit overgrown at the edges. It’s difficult to get as many wheelchairs out as we would like, at one time.
Now a new garden is planned that will be larger, and safer for everyone.
The retaining grass bank on the sloping garden will be pushed back, with steel reinforcing for the new grass bank and a safety rail around the top. There will be new bushes and a larger patio to accommodate more wheelchairs as well as ordinary garden chairs. Raised planters will bring flowers within easy reach, and new bushes will bring scents as well as colour.
The cost of the new garden is £22,750. As well as the planters, bushes and flowers, the cost includes work on the bank and drainage, clearing the site and making the ground level and safe.
The patio will include around 2,000 paving blocks, about the size of a house-brick.
The pleasure of sitting in the fresh air, with the sun on your face, is priceless.
If each person reading this article ‘bought’ a paving block for, say, £10, the garden would be almost paid for. And next time you sit in the sunshine you would have the satisfaction of knowing your gift is making it possible for our older ‘pilgrims’ to do the same.
You can donate via the website, via JustTextGiving or by sending a cheque made out to Pilgrim Homes, to: Pilgrims’ Friend Society, at 175 Tower Bridge Road, London, SE1 2AL