by Simon Jenkins, The Times
Monday January 12 2026, 12.00am, The Times
A pub is ….. a place of public resort….. Since austerity, the closure of local elderly care centres and youth clubs has savaged the number of places offering company and support particularly to solitary people. In a pub a person can find conversation, encounter a friend, watch television or chat to the barman.
….Pubs are social assets that should not be taxed as if they were commercial ventures. If they lose money, they should pass to volunteers as social enterprises, as are increasing numbers of village shops…
Parish churches are another local institution that used to offer social support. Though they too are closing, they at least are mostly listed for preservation. Already a few are emerging as bookshops, post offices, cafés and event spaces.
The answer is for churches, like pubs, to pass to the communities they once served.
Disused churches should not decay but revert to what they once were, community hubs. Variously adapted they could be for meeting, entertaining, exhibiting, eating and, yes, drinking. It will not suit them all, but if the state means to kill off the high street, it could at least aid the birth of the church pub.
Simon Jenkins is the author of England’s Thousand Best Churches
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