When is a church not a church? When it is a bar, a university, a restaurant, a social centre, a night club or a centre for archaeological discovery.

York is star-studded with medieval churches. York Minster dominates the city’s skyline and welcomes 100,000’s of thousands of visitors every year. The spires and towers of parish churches nestle amongst the increasingly taller buildings of the last 70 years of modern development.

These buildings provide a constant in the trajectory of the city as it progresses. Some have stood on the same spot for well over 1000 years. They are often delights to be discovered: moments of tranquillity and inspiration away from the hustle and bustle, the stories of people past, eye-opening art and architecture and even places to contemplate with Koi Carp.

These buildings are the remnants of time when religion ruled peoples’ lives. Nearly 500 years ago there 40 churches in the city – not quite one for every week of the year as you might have heard.

Financial pressures, the condition of the buildings and dwindling Church of England congregations led to parish churches being demolished right up to the late 1960’s.

Some church buildings closed for good and declared redundant. Many survived, of course, and are still very active places of worship. As the city expanded with new suburbs being added new places of worship were built with new religions and denominations contributing their own buildings to the cityscape in a modern multi-faith society as they have done for centuries.

But what of those redundant parish church buildings – often large stone structures with huge interior spaces that add so much to the character and feel of modern York where cultural and heritage tourism is so important.

In 1965 in an early form of adaptive re-use the Archbishop of York set up a commission to investigate new uses for these closed churches rather than demolish them.

Large, often cold, sometimes damp and in a poor state of repair these buildings lined with important historical and architectural features and illuminated by windows full of meaning and colour offered great potential for the right idea.

York Civic Trust decided that it had must do something as modern York needed these buildings to survive and have an active and purposeful life.

Working with partners across the city and attracting local and national investment the Civic Trust took on 99-year leases for a number of these redundant churches and attempted to find thriving uses for other buildings not in their direct care.

A great deal of imagination and money was required for these important parts of York’s streetscape; but from this desire to reuse and adapt rather than demolish and build new sprung some of York’s most favoured cultural and social institutions each offering something for very different but all adding to the cultural life of the city.

York Archaeological Trust took on St Saviour’s parish church to create what is now The Dig – visited by most of the school children of York over the last few decades.

The University of York can trace its roots to St John’s Church on Micklegate, or Ouse Bridge End as it was once known, with the church being the base for the foundation of the University’s first Institute the Institute of Advanced Architectural studies.

As the University grew in Heslington the church became a thriving arts centre, bar and restaurant.

%image('15663280', type="article-full", alt="The National Centre for Early Music - in what was St Margaret's Church")St Sampson’s Church opened as a centre for the over-60's and is still going strong today. The National Centre for Early Music developed St Margaret’s church into a venue of international renown.

As York develops and society changes we should keep our eyes open to those types of building that we might take for granted and that might become ‘redundant’ as we move on into the 21st century for they may well need champions with innovative ideas to reuse and redevelop them.

But also let us keep an ear open for those communities who still keep the life of our open parish church buildings going because they offer much needed respite in a busy world for many people and they still suffer the same financial pressures that they have for more than 1000 years.