There are around 39,000 pubs in the UK, according to the Office of National Statistics, with more than 11,000 pubs having closed in the last decade – a fall of almost a quarter.
However, there are around 40,300 church buildings open to the public and in use, which is also higher than other key public buildings in the UK.
Eddie Tulasiewicz, from the National Churches Trust told Premier: “Pubs have been closing but churches haven’t really. There have been closures around the country, some churches have closed in smaller numbers in some parts of the country but their closure has been outweighed particularly by the rise of new denominations, evangelical churches and pentacostal churches.”
In comparison, there are around 14,300 supermarkets operated by grocery retailers, 11,500 post office branches, 7,500 bank branches and 3,600 public libraries.
“Churches are obviously places of worship but communities meet there and they don’t want to let them go” said Eddie Tulasiewicz.
He added that often people will fight to keep their local church open because of the number communtiy actitivites that are hosted there.
Nearly 1 in 5 polling stations are in church buildings and, aside from the commmon use as a venue for youth groups, older people’s clubs and nurseries and concerts, some even house post-offices, GP surgeries and farmers’ markets.
Revd Lucy Winkett, Rector of…
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