A COULSDON church is looking to establish a community centre and base inside the historic former Cane Hill hospital chapel.
The Coulsdon Christian Fellowship (CCF) has submitted a business plan for the centre to Barratt Homes, which is planning to redevelop the hospital site into more than 650 homes.
Guy Pitt, a friend of the church who is working on community centre plans, said: "The important thing is we cannot just have some blooming great housing estate without some sort of centre for the kids, for the elderly and the church."
The centre would host community events, groups and church activities, similar to the CCF's work at its current base in Chipstead Valley Road.
Organisers plan to make it financially viable by hiring it out to a corporate training company during working hours.
Mr Pitt added: "We want to have a functioning, profitable community centre in there to serve Coulsdon."
The Victorian chapel seated 1,000 worshippers in its heyday, serving the vast numbers working and living at the psychiatric hospital.
It is one of the few surviving remnants of the hospital, which was closed in 1991 and has mostly been knocked down or destroyed by fires since.
CCF also has an idea to include a school as part of the centre, but that is not yet part of the business plan. Mr Pitt added that the building does not need a huge amount of restoration, aside from its roof.
CCF has long set its sights on some sort of presence in Cane Hill, and its former pastor the Reverend Howard Curtis once won planning permission to develop there.
Rachel Warner, who organises many of the church's activities and is married to its current pastor, the Reverend Dominic Warner, said: "We love serving the community; that is where we want to be, and since quite a long time we have had a dream of having a presence up there."
Barratt is in the process of obtaining outline planning permission for its major development from Croydon Council.
The process has been delayed after Barratt was asked to look again at its transport plans.
Mr Pitt stressed the importance of making good use of the chapel, noting that "half the people of Coulsdon" worked or had relatives who worked at the hospital.
He added: "When it comes to using that chapel, if there is to be peace on Earth in Coulsdon, I think Barratt is aware that needs to be some sort of concession for the community because they are sick and tired of being steam-rolled over what they see to be their Cane Hill."
