Architectural detail in Zoroastrian Centre, Rayners Lane
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reusing cinemas as places of worship in the diaspora.Database >
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Funded by Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in collaboration with Historic England.
Led by Kate Jordan and Julie Marsh at the University of Westminster.
Julie Marsh is a researcher at the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM), University of Westminster. Her interdisciplinary practice-based research explores the relationships between cultural heritage, social-spatial agency, and digital technologies through long-term collaboration with communities. Central to her work is Site-Integrity (S-I), a methodological framework developed during her PhD at the University of the Arts London (UAL). Combining artistic practice, socio-spatial analysis, and participatory research, Site-Integrity examines how film can function as a performative tool, as a mechanism for dialogue, reflection, and collective authorship that enable communities to actively shape the narratives of the places they inhabit. This approach is exemplified in her article Site-integrity: An Embedded and Embodied Approach to Practice-Based Research (Scene, Vol. 11, 2023), which examines how artistic fieldwork can generate situated forms of knowledge through collaborative engagement with communities, place, and lived experience.
Kate Jordan is a Reader in Architectural History and Theory in the School of Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster. Her research focuses on inclusive heritage and modern faith architecture. She has published in numerous books and peer-reviewed journals, including The Journal of Architecture, The Journal of Architectural Conservation, Architecture and Culture, and Architectural Histories. In 2023, she was guest editor with Shahed Saleem, of a special issue of Architecture and Culture entitled ‘Sacred, Spiritual, Secular: Spaces of Faith in the Twenty-First Century’. She is co-author of the volume, Modern Architecture for Religious Communities, 1850-1970: Building the Kingdom, published by Routledge in 2018. She is the co-founder and co-course leader of the MA Architecture and Sustainable Heritage and a former member of the Twentieth Century Society Casework Committee.
This project employed cross-disciplinary methods to examine the growing practice of reusing cinemas as places of worship. The project comprised two strands: the first was a broad survey of cinemas used by faith groups in England which allowed us to construct a socio-historical overview of the practice. The aim here was to assemble an architectural history of these buildings not as they were originally but of what they became. This is important, as many of these sites have been places of worship for almost as long as they were cinemas – indeed, one gurdwara in Coventry has been a place of worship for longer than it was a cinema. In looking at the different groups who are adapting former cinemas, it was possible to read demographic and religious shifts in late-modern Britain.
The second strand commenced with a two-year artistic residency at the Zoroastrian Centre for Europe in Rayners Lane, located within the former Grade II* listed Grosvenor Cinema. Drawing on the site-integrity methodology, the residency involved a sustained programme of community engagement, including workshops, heritage conversations, site visits and collaborative creative activities designed to explore how the congregation's lived practices, memories and lived heritage might be represented. Rather than treating community members as subjects of research, the project positioned them as active collaborators in shaping the process and outcomes. Through a series of co-created film installations and public events, congregation members were supported in reflecting upon the evolving identity of the former cinema as a place of worship and cultural gathering. These works were presented both within the building itself and to wider public audiences, including major event held during Interfaith Week brought together representatives from faith communities occupying other repurposed cinemas, alongside heritage professionals from Historic England, creating a platform for knowledge exchange and discussion about the future recognition and protection of these sites.
Through the survey, interviews, workshops and arts based community collaborations we gained insights into where different groups intersect and how migrant communities connect with one another and with their homelands. The findings informed a policy brief for local planning authorities and contributed evidence to a government inquiry on protecting built heritage, while also establishing new networks between faith communities, heritage organisations and policymakers.
Please visit these feature articles for more infomation:
Kate Jordan, ‘Gurdwaras, mosques, temples and churches: how faith groups are reviving England’s old cinemas’ The Conversation, May 15th 2024
Kate Jordan, ‘Theatres of change: rethinking cinemas as places of worship’ Future for Religious Heritage, March, 2024