HC Deb 10 July 1995 vol 263 cc617-8
25. Mr. Barnes

To ask the right hon. Member for Selby, representing the Church Commissioners, what representations the commissioners have received concerning the future of St. Ethelburga's church in London; and if he will make a statement. [31463]

Mr. Alison

The church was declared redundant on 22 June 1994 and is now in the ownership of the diocese of London while its future is considered. The Bishop of London has held a competition for schemes to deal with the remains of the building and its site, the result of which was announced in June. No ensuing recommendations have yet been made to the Church Commissioners.

Mr. Barnes

We are discussing the smallest and oldest church in London, which was blown up by the IRA. Would it not be a tribute to the victims of the IRA in the City if that church were fully and faithfully restored? Is that not better than the proposal to place a glass front before its ruins?

Mr. Alison

As I think the hon. Gentleman might have known, one of the suggestions made by the so-called Templeman Commission favoured the sale of the St. Ethelburga's site for secular development. That goes to the other extreme of what might be done and has been turned down. What is proposed now is that there should be a memorial on the site for those who died in the City bombs, and that there should be a space provided for Christian worship and prayer, and vestry facilities for the office of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate; in the round, a memorial, worship facilities and administrative offices for a church. That probably goes a long way towards meeting what he would wish for this historic site.