April 15, 2019 11.32 am This story is over 67 months old

Let there be light! Church seeks nightclub conversion

A community hub with cafe, youth club, worship area and a stage
The former nightclub has stood empty for 10 years.

Church bosses want to banish the darkness in a former Lincoln nightclub and convert it to a community hub with cafe, youth club, worship area and a stage.

The Diocese of Lincoln has asked City of Lincoln Council for permission to change the use of the building on Free School Lane and outlined a series of works to bring it into the light.

The former Co-op Hall has been vacant for 10 years and was last used for Laser Quest.

The Diocese would like to create a social entrepreneur/charity hub, along with office and meeting spaces for 30-40 people for St Swithin’s Church, as well as “other organisations sharing the values and mission of the church”.

Layout designs for the building showing where the light is hoped to enter.

There will also be a store for clothes donated to St Swithin’s clothing bank. The worship area, it says, will accommodate 400-500 people.

“It is intended that the internal spaces in the building should retain a degree of flexibility to allow for change over time depending on the particularly activities of the church, which is a dynamic organisation,” say documents submitted to the council.

An artists impression of the outside of the building.

Changes will include the removal of several window covers, creating new windows and removing a new extension on the north west part of the building.

The documents say: “The building has been vacant for many years and this, coupled with the nature of the previous use, means that it is a dark space which has suffered from a lack of investment.

“One of the fundamental aims of the design approach has been to find ways to bring light into the building.”

SUBSCRIBE TO LOCAL DEMOCRACY WEEKLY, our exclusive email newsletter with highlights from coverage every week, as well as insights and analysis from our local democracy reporters.