I get the feeling there's more to this than is apparent. For on ethig, what is meant by "The only way through would have been to have the secular life of the building put on an equal par alongside the religious. To renegotiate this position would have been a long process assuming there was the will to do it and it would have taken too long given the fragility of the financial situation following a very tough year for the venue."

As for the booze, generally drinking isn't allowed in concert halls. I might quite like it if it was allowed, it works well enough in tents at folk festivals, but the fact you can't take a drink into concert halls doesn't make them unviable, you just have a separate bar. And there's masses of room in that building for that, if that is really the only problem.

The stuff about smoking is a bit irrelevant - the general pattern now is no smoking in concert halls anyway (let alone churches). (Though the point about damage to the church fabric seems a bit misplaced - after all centuries of incense in churches across Europe doesn't seem to have done too much harm.)

Even aside from losing a great venue, it'll be a tragedy if the building doesn't get looked after the way it deserves. If something doesn't get done to pull the chestnuts out of the fire it'll be a crime.