Holy Joes began around 1989 by a group of christians who wanted to meet but were disenchanted with church. They outgrew the basement room they initially met in and decided that a local pub was the most logical place to meet, after all pubs were the centre of a community and besides which they sold beer. over the next few years they moved from pub to pub in the Clapham area.

Dave Tomlinson one of the original founders of the group was eventually persuaded that even Holy Joes required a little leadership and consequently led the group for many years. He also published a book (the post evangelical), completed an MA in theology, became curate and eventually priest of St Lukes, Holloway where he is currently.

After Dave became priest of St Lukes his workload meant he could no longer continue as leader of Holy Joes and as he was no longer based in Clapham we moved to Victoria to be a little more central.

Over the last six years we continued to crawl from pub to pub. We recently had some time off. because the culture of pubs has changed in recent years we were finding it very difficult to find free space available.

After much searching we were introduced to Rev George Bush (yeah we know and we won't leave it alone either ... wrong or right we are obsessed) ... who very kindly gave us a new home in his basement cafe

Holy Joes is named as a tongue in cheek reference to how many years ago christians would be called a holy joe ... as in 'he is a bit of a holy joe'. There is nobody called joe that was a bit holy and even if your name is joe there is no need to be any more holy than anyone else in the room ... unless you want to be