A new structure at Bristol Airport, intended as a multi-faith space of prayer and reflection, has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The small grey cubicle-like box that is open to the elements but has privacy glass windows, can be found just off the so-called “Silver Zone” roundabout, about a mile from the airport terminal. As many have pointed out on social media, rather than embodying the glory or peace or harmony of any faith, it very much resembles a repurposed bus stop upon which a “multi-faith area” sign has been stuck. And to add insult to injury, even as a bus shelter, the design lacks inspiration.
Kneeling down
Even more open to unfortunate interpretation and ridicule, perhaps, is the icon that appears alongside the words “multi-faith area”, depicting someone on their knees with their hands raised towards their face. Referring to the image, one commenter on social media site X, said: “You know that’s going to get vandalized and you know exactly how it’s going to get vandalized.”
You know that’s going to get vandalized and you know exactly how it’s going to get vandalized. pic.twitter.com/TYmqkbk2rj
— inverse square law of information propagation (@_inverse_square) November 23, 2023
The airport insisted that the facility would provide “customers with a private space to reflect and pray whilst waiting to collect friends, family or loved ones,” and that there had been “an increase in customers requiring a multi-faith area in this location.”
“THIS is Britain”
Nearly 14 million views on social media site X later and thousands of sarcastic remarks show that although online commenters have not been kind to the airport’s initiative, the British still know how to laugh at themselves.
Social commenter and data analyst Dan Barker hailed both the advent of the multi-faith bus shelter and the online reaction as a “shining beacon of Britishness”. “I often hear people say they don’t understand what ‘British Culture’ means,” I think we can all agree this is a shining beacon of Britishness: The reflection of a guy in Hi Vis, the bollard placement, the use of a ‘Smoking Shed’ as a ‘Multi faith area’. THIS is Britain.”
No forgiveness?
Even a Catholic priest, Father Mark Elliot Smith of Warwick Street, London, found the prayer space hard to forgive, calling it “awful and insulting to people of faith”.
Unfavourable comparisons between some of the world’s most beloved religious buildings and the new “multi-faith bus shelter” have been made, as well as questions over how many millions have been spent and how many management consultants might have been involved in the planning of the new infrastructure.
And Father Alex Frost, vicar of St Matthew’s Burnley, made a seasonal but acerbic point about the harsh reality many in poverty in the UK will face this winter: “Maybe you could put some hay and a crib in it. It certainly reflects the stark reality of what it might be to be homeless and with not much shelter. Perhaps not deliberate but thanks for highlighting poor housing facilities on the margins!”
