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A custom double-gothic arch lintel helped return the façade of a 19th-century Carmelite convent to structural service when the building was transformed into the central block of Chichester Free School in Hunston, West Sussex. The £26m project retained the convent as its architectural focus while adding new school wings, and IG Lintels designed and manufactured a lintel to replicate an existing opening rather than forcing a standard component into a historic façade.
From abandoned convent to school centrepiece
The project began with a building that had spent years outside active use. The Carmelite convent had been vacated in 1994. A fire destroyed its chapel in 2009, and the wider building subsequently remained in disrepair. Creating Chichester Free School required partial demolition and refurbishment, with the former convent retained as the central block of a campus planned for more than 1,280 students.
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Architects Datafile reported the project value as £26m in its November 2021 case study. That figure is the publication’s reported value for the project at the time; it is not a current construction-cost estimate or a guide to the cost of reproducing the lintel.
Novium Architects designed the scheme and Farrans Construction built it. The new school was arranged as a linear composition: the restored convent formed the middle, while wings projected on either side. That arrangement made the old façade more than a retained elevation. It became the visual and organisational heart of the school, so details around its openings had to sit comfortably beside new construction.
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Why the opening needed a bespoke solution
Historic openings rarely conform to the dimensions of a modern catalogue component. In this case, the façade carried a gothic composition that the restoration needed to reproduce. A lintel had to provide support above the opening while preserving the geometry and appearance of the existing masonry.
The case study says IG Lintels was approached “for the design and manufacture of a bespoke double gothic arch lintel” so the convent façades could be restored to their former gothic appearance. No standard, off-the-shelf model is identified. The component was made for one existing opening, with its shape and support arrangement developed around that location.
That distinction matters. A bespoke lintel is not simply a decorative trim placed in front of a generic beam. It is a structural component whose opening, arch profile, bearing and relationship to the surrounding brickwork must be coordinated with the building being repaired. The published account describes the project outcome, but it does not provide the engineering calculations, steel grade, connection details, installation sequence or certification. Those items would need to come from the project’s design and construction records, not from this case-study description.
The documented lintel geometry
The case study records three key dimensions for the double arch:
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| Detail | Reported project value | What it describes |
|---|---|---|
| Opening span | 1,580 mm | The stated span of the opening supported by the lintel |
| Gothic arch details | Two arches, each 650 mm wide | The paired arch arrangement within the opening |
| Rise | 430 mm | The vertical rise of the gothic profile |
These are dimensions for the convent opening documented in the case study, not recommended sizes for another project. A different wall thickness, masonry condition, loading arrangement or arch proportion could require a completely different component.
The paired 650 mm details create the double-gothic reading visible in the opening. The 430 mm rise gives the profile its pointed, vertically directed character, while the 1,580 mm span defines the overall width to be supported. Together, the measurements show why a conventional rectangular lintel would not have reproduced the opening faithfully.
How the support was adapted to the old brickwork
Alongside the profile, the case study identifies an important support decision: the end bearing was extended to distribute the load to the brickwork. Bearing is the length of lintel that rests on the masonry at each side of an opening. Extending it increases the area over which forces are transferred into the existing wall, subject to the project engineer’s design and the actual condition of the brickwork.
The report describes the extended bearing as part of the bespoke design and says the lintel restored full structural support to the replicated opening. That is a project statement, not an independently published structural assessment. The account does not state the calculated loads, bearing lengths, masonry strength, reinforcement, temporary works or verification tests, so those details should not be inferred from the headline dimensions.
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In a historic refurbishment, the condition of the supporting masonry is as important as the new steel component. Brickwork may have weathered, cracked, been altered by previous repairs or been affected by fire and prolonged vacancy. A design that matches the visible arch but ignores the actual wall condition would not be a reliable restoration strategy. The documented approach linked the shape of the lintel to the existing opening and explicitly addressed load distribution at its ends.
What “replicating an existing opening” means on this project
The purpose was not to introduce a new architectural motif. The lintel replicated an existing opening in the convent façade. That choice kept the intervention aligned with the building’s original language while allowing the repaired opening to perform as part of the refurbished structure.
Replication involves more than tracing the outline visible from the outside. The design team has to establish the opening’s actual width, the two arch widths, the rise, the wall build-up and the condition of the masonry around the opening. Survey information, drawings and site checks would normally be coordinated before fabrication, although the published case study does not list the individual survey or approval steps used here.
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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteThe result described by the source is a structural element that follows the historic geometry instead of concealing it behind a flat beam or a new generic arch. That is the “individual character” referred to in the project headline: the component was shaped for the convent’s particular façade and its paired gothic opening.
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How the lintel fits the wider school design
The restored convent was placed between new linear blocks with wings projecting on both sides. This created a deliberate contrast: contemporary school accommodation was attached to a retained nineteenth-century centre. The gothic opening therefore had to work at two scales. At close range, it needed to read as part of the convent’s historic masonry. Across the campus, it helped the old central block remain legible as the organising feature.
Using a bespoke component avoided treating the façade as a flat screen. The arch profile, paired openings and extended bearing were all tied to the building’s existing construction. The case study presents that work as one part of a larger programme of partial demolition and refurbishment following years of vacancy and the chapel fire.
The school’s reported capacity of over 1,280 students also explains why the restoration was integrated into a substantial new-build project rather than undertaken as an isolated façade repair. The convent had to function within a modern educational campus while retaining its historic identity.
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A practical checklist for a similar historic opening
The published project supports a useful set of questions for anyone assessing a comparable opening. It does not replace a structural engineer’s design, a measured survey or approvals required for a particular building.
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- Opening span and shape: Record the clear span and whether the opening is single, paired, pointed, segmental or another profile.
- Arch rise and widths: Measure the vertical rise and the width of each arch detail. The Chichester project used a 430 mm rise and two 650 mm-wide details.
- Existing construction: Establish wall thickness, brick type, joints, previous alterations and visible damage before fixing dimensions.
- Support and end bearing: Determine how loads reach the masonry and whether the bearing area needs to be extended. The case study specifically reports extended end bearing for load distribution.
- Historic match: Compare the proposed profile with the opening being replicated, including the relationship between the two arches and surrounding brickwork.
- Temporary works: Plan how masonry will be supported while an existing lintel or damaged section is removed. The source does not publish the method used at the convent.
- Documentation: Obtain drawings, calculations, material specifications, installation instructions and any required approvals for the actual project.
What the case study does—and does not—establish
The available account is a trade-publication case study from Architects Datafile’s November 2021 issue, page 50. It reports the project history, the named design and construction firms, the lintel dimensions and the extended-bearing approach. Buildingtalk’s indexed supplier profile carries the case-study headline and describes IG Lintels’ standard and custom-made steel lintel range, but the profile itself was not available as a directly fetched page for independent detail.
Several practical questions remain outside the published account:
- The lintel’s exact steel grade, coating or finish is not stated.
- No load calculations, design code, fire rating or test results are published.
- The installation sequence, temporary support and site tolerances are not described.
- No price, lead time, warranty, certification or current availability is given.
- The sources do not confirm the building’s condition or the lintel’s performance after 2021.
Those omissions do not diminish the documented design idea; they define its limits. The project demonstrates how a manufacturer can produce a component around an existing gothic opening, but it should not be used as a substitute specification for another building.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesWhy the bespoke approach mattered here
A standard lintel can be appropriate where an opening, wall and loading arrangement fit a known product range. The convent presented a different requirement: a historic façade, a paired pointed-arch composition and a need to preserve an existing opening while bringing it back into structural service. The bespoke route allowed the component’s geometry and bearing arrangement to follow that specific condition.
That approach also kept the intervention visually honest. The opening was not widened or simplified to suit a generic product. Instead, the support was designed around the façade that the restoration was trying to retain. In a project where the former convent became the school’s central block, that fidelity helped the old building remain an active architectural element rather than a decorative remnant.
The project in one view
| Project element | Documented information |
|---|---|
| Building reused | 19th-century Carmelite convent |
| Location | Hunston, West Sussex |
| New use | Central block of Chichester Free School |
| School capacity stated in the case study | Over 1,280 students |
| Reported project value | £26m, as reported by Architects Datafile in 2021 |
| Design practice | Novium Architects |
| Main contractor | Farrans Construction |
| Custom component | Bespoke double gothic arch lintel |
| Supplier named in the case study | IG Lintels |
What makes this restoration significant
The lintel is a small component within a major school project, but it captures the central challenge of adaptive reuse: new structural work has to support a building’s future without erasing the evidence of its past. The convent had been empty for decades and damaged by fire, yet its façade was retained as the heart of a new campus. A made-to-measure double-gothic lintel addressed both sides of that brief.
Its 1,580 mm span, twin 650 mm arch details and 430 mm rise were chosen for one existing opening. Extending the end bearing addressed how the load reached the surviving brickwork. Together, those decisions show a restoration component designed around a particular historic wall, not a generic opening.
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