It's a bit sad really, I was christened in St. Mathews and it's where I attended church and Sunday school. My older brother sang in the church choir whereas I only sang in the South Stand at Boothferry Park. Out of nostalgia, I hope the property continues with a useful life.
You'd have to get a change of use to residential, but you'd have no problems doing so, the building is already over 10,000 sq ft and has the option to be extended further into the decent sized beer garden, the only problem is that it's on St Georges Road(you could actually get 4-6 decent flats out of it without extending it, the internal works would be fairly extensive, but one of the lounges would have a ****ing massive bar in it).
Covenants etc aside it's just the wrong location for a decent, successful bar/restaurant, I grew up in Boulevard and I can imagine how it would be after a year or so. It could either be knocked down and low-cost housing put there, or it could be fixed up in some way and used as some kind of community facility.
Hope something comes of it. It is next door to my old school, Riley High ( as it was for one or two other posters on here) so the area has many nostalgic memories. At least the school building still survives and was not knocked down like the "new" Riley High buildings.
Do bingo halls still work? One near me closed down recently and became a Christian Evangelist meeting place, never seen so many people there!
Agreed. Knocked down for flats. Theres plenty of community facilities round there and the cost would be too much to do it up.
We used to march there on various occasions from Cubs/scouts above Hirst Taxis on Hessle Rd, near Boulevard. It was a lovely place with real meaning for all the local seafaring community, back in the 50s and 60s. Life really can be disappointing.
Although I am not particularly religious now, I too am sorry to hear of the demise of St Mathews, it was the church attended by my extended family in the days when that was what many families did. I was christened there and attended Sunday school, Scouts and sung in the choir in the 1950’s.
There's a lot of switching goes on between the sects/brands but as with cigarettes the general trend is relentlessly down.