An answer to your prayers: church where Stan Laurel was christened for sale for half the price of a London home

Just three hours from London, this immaculate church has plans in place for a six-bedroom home and can be yours for just £295,000
1/57
Becky Davies13 March 2018

A Victorian church eight times bigger than the average UK home, with plans for conversion into a six-bedroom house is for sale with an asking price less than half the average for a London home.

The church of St Peter's in Bishop Auckland, a few miles outside Durham in north east England, is on the market for £295,000, a sum which in the capital might stretch to a one-bedroom flat in Wanstead.

But just three hours from London by train, the Grade II-listed church offers living space spread over 8,000sq ft almost eight times larger than the average 1,100sq ft UK home.

First-time buyers you won't even need to pay stamp duty since it was scrapped for first properties costing less than £300,000.

Plans to convert the church into a six-bedroom home have been approved in the past and the council has indicated that it might approve of demolishing the vestry to create even more space.

Classic comedy fans will also enjoy the fact that Arthur Stanley Laurel, one half of the legendary comic duo Laurel & Hardy, was christened in the Grade II-listed church in October 1891.

The church closed its doors at Christmas 2013 and looks almost exactly the same as it did then, complete with a full set of wooden pews.

Inside, the nave features vast leaded windows and massively high ceilings, while above the altar are three large stained-glass windows.

Original features: Stan Laurel was christened at this font in 1891
Hunters

The baptistry still has the original font, in which Stan Laurel was christened, while the vestries for both choir and clergy are intact and offer more manageable and conventional room dimensions, perhaps for setting up camp in while any conversion in the main building is finished.

Any church worth its salt has a bell tower and this one is splendid and features two rooms inside the copper spire, all accessed via a stone spiral staircase.

Bishop Auckland, sitting on the rivers Wear and Gaunless, is an historic market town once the main residence of the bishops of Durham and later the centre of coal mining boom.

Stan Laurel lived with his family in the town as a child and his parents owned the Eden Theatre, which is now demolished. A statue of the comedy actor now stands in its place.

Bishop Auckland station is a few hundred yards away from the church, and trains to Kings Cross take just over three hours, making the property feasible for a weekend getaway, if not a permanent home.

Alternatively, Durham Tees airport is just 20 miles away, with flights not only to UK and European airports but new destinations this year include Florence, Madeira and Iceland.

St Peter’s Church is on the market with Hunters for £295,000.