Over 3,500 churches have shut across the UK over the past decade, with dwindling congregation numbers and skyrocketing repair bills blamed.
According to the National Churches Trust, around 3,000 to 5,000 parish churches across the country are either closed or used intermittently without a resident vicar.
While many church buildings are becoming derelict, others are seeing a new lease of life as restaurants, swimming pools mosques and gyms.
The Church of England states that about 20 churches are closed for worship each year, and has a regularly-updated list on its website of those which are available for sale or lease for a suitable list.
One example is the St Thomas' United Reformed Church in Watford, Hertfordshire, shut in 2015 with the initial plan to demolish and rebuild it because of serious structural issues
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One example is the St Thomas' United Reformed Church in Watford, Hertfordshire, shut in 2015 with the initial plan to demolish and rebuild it because of serious structural issues.
It was purchased by the local Ar-Rahmah Trust last December, to cater to a Muslim community in Watford which has "grown from a small group to a vibrant and diverse population of 15,000."
Meanwhile, the Church of England intervened to block a disused Grade II-listed church in Stoke-on-Trent from being transformed into a mosque in August last year.
The CoE blocked the development by using a legal clause prohibiting the church from being used for any kind of non-Christian worship, a restriction in place since its 2009 sale by the diocese of Lichfield.
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St John's Church, Hanley, Stoke-on-TrentWikiCommonsVicars are struggling to rebuild attendance on Sundays after the Covid pandemic when many churches were forced to switch to online-only services.
Latest figures show Sunday church attendance has fallen from 788,000 to 557,000 since 2013.
Around 46 per cent of the population or 27.5million people described themselves as "Christian" in the 2021 census, which was down from 59 per cent or 33.3million in 2021.
The Office for National Statistics figures also found "no religion" was the second most common response in the census, increasing to 22.2million or 37.2 per cent in 2021, up from 14.1million or 25.2 per cent in 2011.
Meanwhile, the same data showed that the number of Muslims rose to 3.9million or 6.5 per cent of the population in 2021, up from 2.7million or 4.9 per cent in 2011.
The Halo Nightclub in Bournemouth, which was established at the site of the former St Andrew's Church in 2013, welcomed partygoers before shutting last year.
Meanwhile, the JD Wetherspoon pub, The Samuel Peto in Folkestone was converted in 1998, while the food market chain Mercato Metropolitano's based a site inside St Mark's in Mayfair, a former Grade I-listed church.
In North East London, a chapel that was once part of the Clayburn Asylum psychiatric hospital when it opened in 1892 has since been converted into a 24m swimming pool.
Now swimmers at the Virgin Active facility in Repton Park can look at the stunning gothic arches and stained-glass while taking a dip.
