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According to the folks who run St Paul’s Cathedral, the huge landmark on Ludgate Hill is facing its worst crisis in 300 years.
The building’s income, which relies almost entirely on tourism, has been reduced by 90 percent as a result of lockdown. A quarter of the cathedral’s staff have been made redundant and allegedly all sorts of maintenance problems, like a very leaky roof, have made the building’s insides ‘rot’. Tragic stuff.
St Paul’s received £3.3m from the government’s cultural recovery fund in April. While very useful, the contribution is small beer (or tiny communion wine) when you consider the cathedral’s £8m annual running cost.
As reported on the BBC, the Reverend Dr David Ison said ‘If we can’t raise the resources to be able to employ the people to look after the building and pay for the heating and lighting, we would have to shut our doors.’
The surveyor of fabric (good title!) Oliver Caroe added: ‘We have collections under these roofs, really precious objects, and there are buckets next to them, covered in plastic because the roof leaks. I think everyone would be shocked if this building ran into trouble. It is in trouble now.’
Experts are also concerned that, even once Covid is contained in Britain, tourism will take a while to return to former levels while the pandemic still runs rampant in other countries.
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