Deconsecration and Reuse
The parish was reunited with St Giles in 1959 and St. Luke's font and organ case moved there. The church was closed by the Church of England Diocese of London in 1964 after subsidence made it unsafe and it lay empty. The roof was removed two years later for safety reasons and the shell became a dramatic ruin for 40 years, overgrown with trees, despite being a Grade I listed building.
After several controversial proposals to redevelop offices inside the retained walls, it was converted by the St Luke Centre Management Company Ltd for the London Symphony Orchestra as a concert hall, rehearsal, recording space and educational resource. The conversion was designed by Axel Burrough at London architects Levitt Bernstein, who installed a heavy concrete slab roof which keeps out traffic noise from the nearby road. Though this is similar in profile to the former eighteenth century roof its great weight is supported on tall steel columns inside the hall described by the designer as 'tree-like'. The interior acoustic can be varied for different events, from full orchestra to soloists, by the use of absorbent surfaces that unroll like blinds across the ceiling and down the walls whilst the seating and staging is also highly flexible. A total of 1053 burials were recorded and removed during the restoration of the crypt. A documentary "Changing Tombs" covering the removal of the burials was produced at the time and can be found on YouTube.
Read more about this topic: St Luke Old Street