Historic city building returns to its roots

A LANDMARK city building has gone back to its Christian roots.

- By TOM MACK

Nearly 150 years after it was built, the former Quaker meeting house in Prebend Street, Leicester, reopened as a church yesterday.

The building, off London Road in the city centre, will be a “spiritual home and a hub for community support” as a new home for the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG).

The building dates back to 1876 and, after being the home of the Religious Society of Friends - known as Quakers - it became a military recruiting station, a school for the blind and later a Sikh temple.

It has undergone some restoration work and interior changes ahead of being taken over by UCKG.

The Church, founded in Brazil in 1977, will be using the building as a place of daily worship and also a centre for various community support programmes, youth activities and workshops.