The Union Chapel needs your help to raise funds

Islington’s Union Chapel is a true cornerstone of its community. The late nineteenth-century Gothic-revival building has a place in the lives of many: worshippers go there for services (it is still a working church), audiences enjoy live entertainment there and homeless people use its drop-in centre.

Times are tough, though. The chapel has, like so many other venues, lost a huge amount of its live-events income as a result of the pandemic and lockdown restrictions. With Covid cases still high across London, there’s still an uncertainty in the air when it comes to planning for its future. This isn’t stopping the Union Chapel from persisting with the expansion of its charity programmes, though. London’s most vulnerable need our help more than ever.

The issue is that 80 percent of the chapel’s charity income was earned through its events, so now it will need help from the generous public (that’s you!) to achieve its goal of accumulating £120,000 over the next 30 days. The campaign has already raised more than £5,000, with support from the likes of Frank Turner and Deborah Frances-White. The funds will go towards supporting the Union Chapel’s community work for the rest of 2021 and rebuilding the Grade II-listed Sunday school hall, turning it into a hub of ‘life-changing training, employment and empowerment programmes’, as the Crowdfunder campaign says. Last year, a film of the Sunday school hall was produced by Historic England. You can watch it below. 

Donations of any size are welcome, naturally, but there’s a staircase of rewards for certain sums donated, ranging from signed Christmas cards and organ-tour experiences, to being able to spend a day with the sound technician of the venue. You can create your own fundraiser for the venue too, should you be the kind of person who shaves your head or runs a marathon for charity. 

If you fancy doing a good deed for the day, you can visit the Union Chapel’s Crowdfunder here. 

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