St Mark's Church in Mayfair turned into a food hall

[successstories]

I was quite uncomfortable to see this former place of worship being turned into a food hall.

There was something disturbing about spaghetti and pizza being dished up in front of all the religious objects and imagery (which are very prominent, still in situ and pretty much intact)

Isn't there a Christian organisation that could have ensured this building was preserved for a more suitable use? If this had happened to a Synagogue or a Mosque for example, there would have been outrage.

AIBU?

See whenever I feel down about the general state of Britishness - something like that pops up. Brilliant.

OP, many (most?) other religions don't place quite the same importance on the building itself.

There are squillions of churches around - you've already been told that this one has both been deconsecrated for 50 years and the interior is Grade 1 listed so very little can be done with it.

Would you rather your religion kept paying money to protect an empty shell, or that it was demolished so the land could be sold, or that some enterprising business with a strong community element could actually use it. Or that it eventually falls down. Because those are the choices.

This 'other religion' outcry is lazy Daily Mail speak too.

Jesus flips table

Damn Sadducees.

Our church used to be an old cinema, it gets more use now as a church/community centre.

Would you prefer that they had knocked it down and replaced it with flats?

The National Trust won’t have wanted an old church! You’d be amazed to know how much they get offered and turned down. They turn down most of what they are offered. Properties have to come with large financial gifts to keep them running.

I had a look on the website and it’s a social enterprise that supports small start ups and provides free school meals and cooking classes to those in need. I don’t know how anyone can realistically get worked up about it.

You make yourself look more ridiculous with every post! 🤣

How often is 40° weather an issue in London? Don’t be silly.

No-one is going to stop you putting your water bottle in your bag and taking a look around, if you’re only there for the sight seeing 🤷🏻‍♀️

If you’re a Christian you seem to have missed the sermons which talk about what sacred actually means. It’s not the buildings or the objects which are meaningful, the church is the body of people, anything else is just window dressing. Churches spring up in all sorts of buildings, and just as quickly disappear from them again as the needs of the congregation change. I’d much rather see old church buildings used for something purposeful, than left to become derelict.

And it absolutely does happen to mosques and synagogues too. What was our local mosque was once a cinema and is now a boxing gym.

Yep, our local Karate club is in an old mosque. There is no outrage here.
The church is no longer a church, not for half a century. Good luck to the new owners.

Yes that was my take

It sounds good if they offer those classes to the disadvantaged

A church is a group of Christian people - not a building. The building is only a place for the church to meet. Many old church buildings are abandoned for a reason - and not always due to lack of use either. They are often expensive to run and not fit for (modern) purpose. Whilst it is nice to be able to retain impressive parts of our historical heritage - whatever kind of building it may be - it is simply not practical to retain them all. And that is as it should be. We need to renew our landscape from time to time. If we didn't we would all still be living in mud huts.

I'm sure someone has said this already and I've just missed it, but if it's so appalling that former churches are put to alternative uses maybe the Church of England could, I don't know, become less unpopular?

Ye gods OP, you would have hated to see some of the stuff that was going on there when it was a wedding venue. A friend of mine definitely got a cheeky wristy in the lavs.

YABU. It's being put to good use. Why should it be a library, rather than a place where people can eat and? What's inappropriate about eating?

It's about respect, I think. Going back to my point, this would never have been allowed if it was a building that had been used by any other religion.

Do you have any actual evidence for that, or are you just assuming? Posters have given a few examples of other religious buildings which have been used for other things. Besides, there are absolutely gazillions of churches in this country - many times more than synagogues, mosques etc and far, far more than are needed by the seriously dwindling number of Christians.

I’ve just looked on their website. It looks like it’s been very sympathetically restored. The food appears to focus on being local and sustainable. There’s no entry fee to go in and look around.
There’s a community space in the basement for local groups, free events for children etc.
To me it looks like a derelict building has been transformed for the better.

Going back to my point, this would never have been allowed if it was a building that had been used by any other religion.

You keep using this as your gotcha but Islam is a very practical religion, a mosque just requires four walls, at the most a temporary roof and a floor of soil.

The masterpieces of architecture - the chandeliers, intricate artistry mmi plus interiors, etc are not required.

So those four walls and roof being repurposed for a restaurant would be fine.

Given nearly every church service I have attended has ended with the congregation eating biscuits and drinking Fairtrade coffee I can't see that much has changed here except that they probably serve better coffee.....

Often churches use their meeting area as a place for events as well as worship if there is no separate hall E.g. lunch, wedding, toddler group.

What's wrong with that?

The only time I've every had any time for the church was the one near my old bus stop who pulled down their huge traditional church, built social housing on the land, and moved their worship into the old church hall building. That's ministry in action.

I’ve been there and think it’s fantastic.

i
If the National Trust or a charity were interested they could have snapped it up years ago. Nothing worse than an empty, derelict building.

Sounds like its a lot more useful than it ever was as a church

It's about respect, I think. Going back to my point, this would never have been allowed if it was a building that had been used by any other religion.

a Christian with a victim mentality? How unusual

Meh.

A better use for it IMO than spreading superstition (and misogynistic, cruel, you’re with us or you burn in hell kind of superstition).

Churches around here have been turned into nurseries, softplays, climbing gyms, and restaurants. All of them positive, life affirming activities that don’t burn witches or scientists.

In fairness, I think it's been quite a while since the C of E or any other denomination burned a witch/heretic/scientist/whatever.

Anyway OP, the Grosvenor Estate has apparently spent £5 million on preserving/restoring it. It was occupied by a Christian charity between 1994-2008 but has spent most of the last 50 years unoccupied. I don't think selling food and drink is an appalling use of a lovely building (that is no longer a church because it is deconsecrated)

(Not trying to derail the thread, but I can't think of any scientists burned by religions offhand. Some historians make a case for Giordano Bruno, but they're in a small minority given all his other crimes.)

Giordano Bruno was considered a heretic, but I hope we have moved on from those less enlightened times.