The altar, the pulpit and the pews are all still here [some remainingin situ behind the fake rockfaces]."A church is a rather more complex space than a conventional sports hall or industrial unit, and this, according to Jarvis, presents a unique challenge for those charged with designing one as a climbing venue "You have to be quite creative in your design," he explains. "But we've still come up with some very technical routes; we've got pillars and overhangs and fangs [irregular spikes of imitation rock] so you can climb in any direction."The latest in this trend for bespoke indoor rockhopping is the new Ruzyne Climbing Centre in Prague. Back in Blighty, the Foundry climbing centre in Sheffield is a former steelworks.What all these venues have in common is the impressive variety of climbing routes they offer, something purpose-built climbing walls struggled to deliver when they first appeared in Europe in the 1970s. A number of other churches in the UK have found new leases of life as climbing venues, including St Andrew's in Edinburgh; St Alban's in Liverpool; and St Werburgh's in Bristol.In other major European cities, the range of unlikely venues being put to use by an ever-growing band of urban climbing enthusiasts is growing: in Vienna, the Kletterzentrum Flakturm in the city's Esterhazypark offers veterans and beginners alike the chance to scale a massive, 34-metre World War II gun emplacement; while on the outskirts of Brussels, the New Top Rock climbing centre was created from dilapidated farm buildings seven years ago. "We can't alter the fabric of the church, and anything we bring in has to be removable."A church may sound like a left-field venue for a climbing centre, but its high, vaulted ceiling makes it ideal, and St Benedict's is far from unique.
The building's listed status meant that in adapting the church to suit their needs, the climbers had to adhere to strict planning criteria."We've put in a free-standing climbing wall, held up by a huge concrete footprint [base] under the floor," Dunne says. To the rescue came a group of local climbers, who for more than five years had been looking for somewhere they could open an indoor climbing centre. One of them was John Dunne. "We were having real difficulties finding a building that was viable, because of the high prices of property in the city," he says "Then, by chance, somebody found out about this church. If it had remained unused I don't think it would have lasted more than a couple of years before vandals burnt it down."The conversion took place with the blessing of the Diocese of Manchester and English Heritage, and St Benedict's opened to climbing enthusiasts in February this year. A lack of parishioners led to St Benedict's in Ardwick, Greater Manchester, being declared redundant in Decem-ber 2002, and despite the building's Grade II listing, its future looked bleak. Today it is inhabited by lithe athletic types in T-shirts and casual trousers, warming up with stretches before negotiating jutting handholds and taut ropes - it's enough to make mutton-chop whiskers bristle with indignation. It is hard to imagine what the High Church Victorian faithful of east Manchester would have made of it.
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