Michael Chandler, Poppy Reindorp and Barbara Basini in the Sunday School

THE day Union Chapel opened on its current site in 1877, guests were served a starter of Pontoise soup, with roast fowls, tongues or hams as a main course and a dessert of Macédoine jelly or strawberry cream.

This lunch menu is just one of the items preserved in the store cupboards of the Upper Street church soon to enter its new archive.

Other objects include a silver ceremonial trowel used to lay the first stone of the chapel, and a thorough “bill of quantities” detailing in cursive script the exact materials needed to build the church, down to the last nail.

More recent additions to this collection are a signed poster for comedian Adam Buxton’s stand-up show in the chapel, and a signed photograph of Bob Geldof’s band, The Boomtown Rats.

These tokens speak to the chapel’s more recent history as a world-renowned music venue, where artists from Amy Winehouse to Patti Smith to Ed Sheeran have performed.

Until now, Union Chapel’s precious artefacts have been stored in boxes in the church’s Sunday School. But a recent £1million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund means this collection will be transformed into a formal archive, spanning the 200 years since the church was first established.

“It’s a fascinating history covering the journey of the church – the journey of the Nonconformist movement – from being pretty excluded and marginalised in society, to [being] at the forefront of lots of social justice movements, in terms of liberalism, anti-slavery, anti-poverty, the free education movement, the suffragette movement,” said Union Chapel CEO Michael Chandler.

The Sunday School, pre-refurb

The Heritage Fund will also go towards a complete refurb of the Sunday School, a large space built in the 1800s to provide classes to underprivileged children in the area. “A lot of these causes were supported in [the Sunday School] over the last 200 years,” Mr Chandler said.

According to Barbara Basini, head of conservation at Union Chapel, the money will go towards retrofitting the building, renewing and re-insulating the roof, repairing the brickwork, fitting secondary glazing and installing effective, eco-friendly heating.

Once the building works are completed, the Sunday School will reopen as a public space available to the local community. “There is a need and a demand for a space that is, in essence, a community hub,” said Mr Chandler.

He said of the archive and building project: “Bringing this all together is a sense of music, culture, arts and creativity with that experience of childhood and heritage, and an exploration of social justice.”

Mr Chandler added the project has encouraged those working at Union Chapel to reflect on its role and purpose. “What does Nonconformism mean today – that radical action and social justice? We want to bring that back to life: how do we use our heritage as inspiration for the people that we’re hoping to engage in our communities today?”

“Most people know us as a world-famous venue, but we are also a charity working to support and serve our local community. And what does that community now need? That is inherited very much from the history of Union Chapel as a whole,” he said.