London's 100 Best Churches

The Johan Zoffany exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts has a splendid picture of All Saints Fulham in 1781.

The Sharp Family was the musical family of George III’s doctor who lived in a house next to the church. Church and bow fronted house are seen in the background of the painting depicting the family playing instruments on a barge.

Zoffany married his wife Mary at St Pancras Old Church in 1805. They had been together for years but it seem that the artist was at first not sure that his first wife in Germany had died. The couple been living together for so long as ‘man and wife’ that Mary started signing the register ‘Mary Zoff..’ before remembering that she was really still been ‘Mary Thamas’.

Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed is at the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly from Saturday 10 March to Sunday 10 June; admission £9 (conc £7).

The recent death of Lord Carr of Hadley reminds me of the chandelier in St Mary’s Monken Hadley.

It was given by Robert Carr who lived at the nearby 18th-century house called Monkenholt whilst he was Home Secretary in the early 1970s.

The church, just inside London, did not have electricity until 1931.

The first in a series of the Handel Collection concerts at St Stephen Walbrook start on Shrove Tuesday.

These Genius of Youth concerts are at 1pm every third Tuesday of the month until July.

Admission is free and attending is a wonderful way to enjoy the architecture of this unique church.

The dates are: Tuesdays 21 February, 20 March, 17 April, 15 May, 19 June and 17 July.

A day after seeing St Anne’s Limehouse featured in Call The Midwife on BBC1 I dropped in to see the Nicholas Hawksmoor exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.

There is a view of St Anne’s in 1800 when there were cows to the north-east. Another view is John Piper’s 1964 drawing. A video shows Iain Sinclair outside the church talking enthusiastically about its literary role.

Also highlighted is St George’s Bloomsbury.

It is interesting to discover that St Mary Woolnoth did not have steps up to the front door in 1812. A 1924 photo shows the Underground sign pointing down to the crypt door on the north-west side which was the Bank Station entrance.

This is a free exhibition on the way to the restaurant but a lot has been packed in. You need to walk past the long queues for the David Hockney exhibition.

Nicholas Hawksmoor: Architect of the Imagination continues daily until Sunday 17 June.

Lent starts this week on Ash Wednesday 22 February 2012.

St Mary-le-Bow has a High Mass with Imposition of Ashes at 1.05pm when the celebrant and preacher is the Rt Revd Graeme Knowles, the former Dean of St Paul’s.

Southwark Cathedral has a Choral Eucharist at 12.45pm and 5.30pm.

St Anne’s Limehouse looked impressive as it should for the wedding scene in the final episode of Call The Midwife.

The journalists’ church St Bride’s Fleet Street is now webcasting many of its services.

“The Choir of St. Bride’s, Fleet Street is proud to be the first adult professional choir, and also the first London church choir to offer web-casting of services,” says director of music Robert Jones. “This is very fitting for a church with such strong media links, and I hope it will bring the distinctive and exciting sound of the St. Bride’s choir to a wider audience.”

Fr Colin Amos has been installed as the new vicar at St Augustine’s Kilburn.

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall were present at last night’s Sung Mass for Candlemas at St Michael’s next to Sainsbury’s in Camden Town.

The Prince had spent much of the day in the Old St Pancras parish visiting St Mary’s Eversholt Street and St Michael’s. He also went to nearby St Silas Kentish Town.

The Duchess joined him at 7pm in Camden Town for the Candlemas celebration.

Reuters is tonight reporting that St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street is being forced to launch an appeal for the restoration of its wedding cake steeple.

Stone has fallen and it is thought that nearby building work may have caused vibrations.

The appeal is to be announced shortly and launched by the heritage writer Adrian Tinniswood.