It is funny isn’t it, how the world works? The game of bingo was once one of the most popular forms of fundraising used by churches and now we have a former bingo hall that has been given the go-ahead to be turned into a church. This is not a unique happening and many churches have purchased former bingo halls to house their congregations. It is sort of poetic justice in a very simplified way.

Resurrection Manifestations, the developers of the old Mecca Bingo Hall in Essex Street, Islington have been give permission to change the old building into a place of worship despite the fact that there may be a parking problem for worshippers. They are expecting a 2 300 strong congregation to be worshipping these and as their already existing church facilities has around 43% arriving by car, there are fears that parkers will clogg local streets on Sundays when there are no parking restrictions.

Despite reservations that there will be no parking available for regular customers to traders in the area, the panel was so impressed by the projected development of the old bingo club, that they gave their permission anyway. The development is going to contain cinemas, a restaurant and café’s. Now I read this and I am wondering, where the heck is the church going to be?

Reverend David Prince has said that they will not be bringing in people from all over London, they were going to try to focus on drawing the local community to the church facilities, and will also encourage people to make use of public transport.