Plans for the Beaufoy

We have had big plans for this place ever since we saw the Beaufoy Institute for sale! And Diamond Way volunteers have already achieved a lot since we bought the dilapidated building in 2013.

Our first priority was to get the Beaufoy safe and ready for visitors so that we could open the centre for meditation sessions as quickly as possible. We managed to officially open the Buddhist centre in April 2014!

To manage this, a huge amount of work was undertaken, including renovating the small meditation hall, the public lounge, and rooms for the first Beaufoy residents. While much of the building, including the entire of the Annexe, is not accessible to the public, enough space has been renovated to make up a delightful, bright, functioning Buddhist centre.

Next, we want to finish the Beaufoy’s main meditation hall, create a café, the charity’s offices and around twelve bedrooms.

Original planning application

The work to convert the Beaufoy Institute into our Buddhist centre, to restore and to conserve it will see the Beaufoy Institute once again in its former glorious state, within the current regulations, use requirements and sustainability policies. The planning application was approved by Lambeth Council – see our Diamond Way Buddhism UK Blog for more details.

After consultation with the community and the historical buildings officer, the planning application for what will be London’s largest Buddhist centre was approved, and we’re now planning how the Lambeth community might use the Buddhist centre, and ideas for the renovation and interior design of the Beaufoy.

Artist’s impression of the Beaufoy Institute with extension, as seen from the corner of Black Prince Road and Vauxhall Street

The design proposal ensures that the listed building – the Institute proper – is fully respected. Minimal changes are proposed to the original listed building.

To the rear of the Institute an extension is proposed to get more light into the inner spaces with an additional extended rear garden.

In the Annex, the proposal is to create residential accommodation for members of the Buddhist community, who communally share the ground floor kitchen/dining/social space with members and all visitors to the Buddhist centre.

This reflects the community approach that Diamond Way Buddhist centres use. The aim of the proposal is to achieve optimal energy performance, maximising passive and active methods to create the best sustainable development possible given the limitations of the Beaufoy building and its listed features.

Further plans

The further renovation of the Beaufoy Institute will of necessity be completed in a number of stages.

Phase Two will involve building further bedrooms to fill the annex of the Beaufoy Institute and Phase Three will be to extend the building at the back, as seen in the plans below.

To the rear of the Beaufoy Institute we propose to create a garden and provisions for car parking including disabled and bicycle spaces accessed from Black Prince Road.

Artist’s impression of the rear of the Beaufoy Institute

Further developments with the Beaufoy Institute and details of the designs and plans will feature on our Beaufoy Blog.