British churches are turning into pubs and supermarkets

Climbing wall in St. Benedict's Church in Manchester (photo: Manchester Climbing Centre)

London - A church transformed into a beer shrine, a nave converted into a supermarket, or a car showroom: some British churches are beginning to live a new life due to the decline in worshippers and high maintenance costs, a life that often does not align with their original mission. This is reported by the AFP agency.
    Just behind the portal of the Presbyterian church on Muswell Hill, a monumental building of red bricks and stone in northern London, sits a huge wooden barrel of Guinness beer, pulsating with pop music. The cross nave still boasts gothic arches, though they are painted red, hiding a large bar underneath. Church pews have been replaced with tables, stools, and slot machines.
    The former church, built in 1902, whose exterior remains completely untouched, has now become an Irish pub.
    "If it were still a church, there would be two or three people here, while on Friday and Saturday it’s packed,” says construction worker John Earl sipping a pint of beer. “It’s a bit strange; I feel like I should have respect for this place. It doesn't prevent me from getting drunk, but I don’t like it when someone paints the pillars,” adds the 46-year-old man who prefers traditional pubs with a more human dimension.
    "It's great here. At least this way the church is being used; otherwise, it would fall into disrepair,” opines 33-year-old Yamini, who came here with a friend for a glass of red wine.
    Churches in Britain have had to do something regarding the very costly maintenance of their vast properties in recent years due to the continually declining number of worshippers.
    The Anglican Church, the most powerful in Britain, strictly limits how churches can be used. It only agrees to their sale after its committee approves their future use.
    “There can't be a family planning center, or a sex shop or casino in the church. There can be a restaurant, as long as it’s not named, for instance, The Devil, but there can't be a pub,” explains Jeremy Tipping, who is responsible for the use of church buildings in the Anglican Church.
    On the other hand, it is permitted to set up a climbing wall, as in St. Benedict’s Church in Manchester, a practice space for a circus, as at St. Paul’s in Bristol, where the nave allows for hanging a trapeze, a supermarket, a library, or a Sikh shrine.
    Despite very strict regulations, the Anglican Church has not avoided some embarrassing situations. "We transferred one church to an art gallery, and then we received complaints that the exhibited art was obscene,” states Jeremy Tipping.
    The Catholic Church has also encountered its share of difficulty, where new uses for church buildings are not so strictly limited and are under the jurisdiction of dioceses.
    In Liverpool, St. Peter's Church, where religious images have been preserved, hosts a restaurant that holds Halloween parties. "For many Catholics, this is deeply offensive,” admits Sophie Andreae from the heritage committee of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.
    From 1969 to 2011, the Anglican Church closed 1,872 churches, of which 474 were demolished and 1,046 repurposed for non-religious uses. This earned the church 57 million euros (1.4 billion CZK), most of which was transferred to the dioceses.
    The most common reuse is for often luxurious residences, such as a seven-room house with astonishingly high ceilings, bright windows, and a swimming pool, which was offered in London last year for 60 million euros (1.62 billion CZK).
    Twenty-eight-year-old Rachel Chudley bought a more modest but charming apartment in a church in the eastern part of the metropolis. The windows in her living room are adorned with sculptures. "We are completely up high, in the bell tower, where the faithful cannot see. My parents laughed that when I bought this apartment, I got closer to paradise,” she says. "I often wondered whether I was blaspheming by living in a church,” she laughs.