Staff jobs safe as cathedral shop closes down (From The Northern Echo)

Staff jobs safe as cathedral shop closes down

THE Durham Cathedral bookshop, once described as the best theological bookshop in the world, has closed suddenly.

The cathedral had ordered Phil and Mark Brewer to vacate the shop, in its Great Kitchen, by May, amid critics’ claims the American brothers had left it a shadow of its former self.

But the Brewers’ Saint Stephen the Great Trust unexpectedly closed the store on Friday, January 22.

The cathedral is now moving to open its own temporary shop as quickly as possible, ahead of establishing a permanent shop next year.

Chapter clerk Philip Davies said: “We were expecting the Brewers to move out by the beginning of May. This has taken us a bit by surprise.

“We knew things weren’t good in the shop and that stock had gone down but we weren’t prepared for it to go as it did on Friday.”

The cathedral has told the six people who worked at the bookshop that it will employ them.

The temporary bookshop could open within two to three months.

No decisions yet have been taken on where the temporary or permanent shops will be situated within the cathedral.

A feasibility study is expected to be completed during the summer.

The Great Kitchen is being lined up to host the Lindisfarne Gospels when they are loaned to the region by the British Library in 2013, but the building has structural problems.

The Brewers’ departure has delighted campaigners who organised an internet petition calling on the cathedral to rescue the shop from the brothers, invoking the Biblical story to Jesus throwing moneylenders out of a temple to support their case.

The Brewers’ Trust was established in 2004 to acquire redundant churches and put them into use for Orthodox Christian worship.

It took over several Christian bookshops from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in November 2006, but the Durham outlet was thought to be the last remaining open.

Mr Davies described the period as an “unhappy episode” and said the cathedral was looking forward to having control of its own bookshop.

“We hope there will be some exciting proposals for developing the visitor attractions coming forward.

“We have some wonderful buildings and this is about how we use them for the future.

Having a really good bookshop and gift shop is part of that.”

Neither the Brewers nor the Saint Stephen the Great Trust could be contacted for comment.