Ruins

[John_Carrick]

Some ruins go back a long way, to the impact of Henry VIII and Cromwell, but I guess there are many churches in towns and cities that are no longer needed. It very common to see redundant churches converted to offices, homes, cinemas, libraries and in one case here in Belfast into a comedy club.
Apart from the tendency for certain parts of Christianity to fragment into new denominations and for some of these to be more successful than others, another factor is that towns used to be much more densely populated than they are now. In the City of London you will see a church, often designed by Christoper Wren, on nearly every street, but there used to be thousands living on these streets, instead of a few banks. Over the past century people have moved out of town centres to the suburbs and town centres can become quite derelict and underpopulated in places, with churches that have lost their congregations. Many old ruins might also be legally protected structures which is of course right, but this can make it harder to adapt them for modern use.