A former reading room at 2 St Peter at Arches, in the heart of Lincoln, has now found a new lease of life as a tattoo studio.
In 1724 St Peter at Arches church was built, and it was run by the Church of England. However, in 1933 the church stopped its services, moved on and left the building standing empty.
Lincoln city centre was built around it and Unit 2, St Peter at Arches has had many ‘lives’ since then.
For many years it was a reading room for a library and some of the features from this life still exist in the building today. The doors leading to the main room are the original library doors, with patterned frosted glass.
At some point the room above the snooker club was made into public toilets, but was shut down in 2014 after safety concerns were raised that they were being used for sexual activity.
In November 2014, the toilets were auctioned off by J H Walter and reached the asking price of £150,000.
A planning application was given to The City of Lincoln Council to turn the first floor room into a restaurant, and the permit was granted. However, nothing further came of this.
Then in late 2018, Glenn Morris leased the room from its current owner and started work on renovating the room to use as a tattoo studio.
The Guilded Quill then officially moved into the property this week. After eight years at their previous location on the high street, Glenn said “I’m looking forward to moving into a bigger, brighter studio with a totally new feel for Lincoln.”