Proclaimer Blog
Just a rain shelter?
I heard one of the Jensens (forget which one now) once say about churches…"they're just rain shelters." Amen. Well, perhaps slightly more, but that is the essence of it. Trouble is, of course, many of church buildings are historic buildings as well, so everyone wants their piece of them. And try to move the pews just a few inches…..boy!
I wish we were free of all that stuff. I love architecture and great buildings and have failed in a recent campaign to have an historic building near us preserved (I noticed yesterday that the Poplar Labour Exchange – for that is the building) finally had demolition work started on it. Shame. However, in the tension that must be felt between history and function, function rules as far as I am concerned for church buildings.
I'm not sure I can prove this – but I wonder if churches get a harder time than necessary? Above is a picture of LSO St Lukes. The building is a Hawksmoor and John James creation, Grade I listed, but it fell into disrepair and the roof was removed some time ago. It basically became a shell. And then (and probably only then) was permission granted to do some radical work inside. Mrs R and I went there for a concert recently (for it is now a concert venue) and it is incredible. I love it! It would, by the way, also be a great church space, though the chances of any church being given approval to do something like this are fairly slim.
So yes, we want rain shelters – or, in truth, something a little more sophisticated. But we must battle authorities to get them. And perhaps this is one of the times where it is just slighly easier being a non-conformist. Many a time our buildings don't have the same kind of architectural or historical cachet associated with them so we can get away with more radical modelling.