London's 100 Best Churches

It was good to see Mayor of London Boris Johnson telling the Evening Standard that St Magnus the Martyr Church in Lower Thames Street was his favourite church.

He also names St Bride’s, St Martin -in-the-Fields, Croydon Minster and the “four sisters of St Luke West Norwood, St Matthew’s Brixton, St Mark’s Kennington and St John Waterloo Road, with their strikingly shared architecture”.

Now the full list of famous people’s church choice has been issued by the National Churches Trust.

Joanna Lumley and Giles Coren both nominate St Bride’s.

Joanna says: “The tiny graceful spire, like a precious sea-shell, rises among the clustering modern and Victorian buildings like a dream vision. This spire was the inspiration (exactly the right word) for tiered wedding cakes the world over.”

Giles says: “I got married at St Bride’s for a number of reasons: because it is beautiful, because it has the best choir in London, because it is the parish church of the journalistic trade that I ply, and because Sir Christopher Wren didn’t build synagogues.”

Alex Polizzi highlights Farm Street Church which three generations of her Forte family have known.

Shelter charity chief executive Campbell Robb rightly names St Martin-in-the-Fields since his charity evolved out of the work on behalf of homeless people then being carried on at St Martin-in-the-Fields in 1966.

Lord West, admiral and former minister, says: “I would nominate St Anne’s Limehouse. The church is a classic Hawksmoor chuch which has been lovingly restored over the past 10 years with still more to do. The flagstaff on the church tower is a designated river mark for navigation on the Thames and has been entitled to fly a White Ensign since the late 18th century.”

The bookshop at St Edmund the King in Lombard Street closed at the end of March so now the church is looking slightly bare as the last books are being sold or removed.

The building is open to visitors from 10.30am-4.30pm Tuesday-Thursday.

St Edmund’s remains the base for the London Centre for Spirituality welcoming people as usual for meetings, courses and events.

Mgr Nicholas Hudson, Rector of the English College in Rome, is to be the Rector of The Sacred Heart at Wimbledon.

His appointment follows last year’s announcement that the Jesuits will cease to look after the parish from this autumn.

It is Fr Hudson’s home parish where he was baptised and ordained.

The Catholic League, founded by Henry Fynes Clinton in 1913 to promote Catholic-Anglican unity, is keeping its centenary by marking the Foundation Day at The Assumption Warwick Street and Inauguration Day at St Magnus.

Foundation Day on Tuesday 2 July starts at The Assumption with tea from 5pm followed by a lecture at 6pm by Fr John Hunwicke called ‘Gregory Dix and the Necessity of the Papacy’.

At 7pm there is Solemn Sung Mass (Roman Catholic) celebrated by The Rt Revd Keith Newton, (Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. The church is now in the care of the Ordinariate. Catholic League president Fr Michael Rear will be the preacher.

Inauguration Day on Saturday 6 July starts with Solemn Sung Mass (Anglican) at St Magnus in the City at noon celebrated by the founder’s successor Philip Warner. The preacher is Canon Robin Ward, Principal of St Stephen’s House.

At 2.30pm Judge Michael Yelton will speak on ‘The Quest for Unity – 100 Years of the Catholic League’.

The first of the monthly Bach Vespers at the Lutheran congregation’s new home St Mary-at-Hill is on Sunday 30 June at 6.30pm.

Music will be provided by the Sweelinck Ensemble, directed by Martin Knizia, with Emily Atkinson (soprano) and David Soar (bass).

The Lutherans were until last month based at St Anne & St Agnes.

Suffragette Emily Davidson who died following an accident at The Derby a century ago is being remembered at St George’s Bloomsbury.

This is the church where the body was brought six days after her death at Epsom.

St George’s was chosen for a memorial service because the rector Charles Baumgarten had been known to say that “women’s influence might enrich the nation”. To Londoners this service was the funeral although that took place the following day at Morpeth.

The Derby Day 1913 anniversary is being marked at St George’s with a play Emily Wilding Davidson: The one who threw herself under the horse at 3pm and 7.30pm on Tuesday 4 June; admission £12 (conc £10).

On Friday 14 June, the memorial service anniversary, children from nearby primary schools St Alban’s and St Clement Danes will perform a special piece of music.

The next day, Saturday 15 June there will be a community procession, recalling the ‘funeral procession’, and at 12 noon a plaque will be unveiled.

Other anniversary events at Bloomsbury can be found in the Wilding Festival programme.

The Friends of the City Churches has moved to St Mary Abchurch which John Betjeman thought was ‘one of the most beautiful’ churches in the City.

Until recently the Friends’ office was in nearby St Magnus.

The Friends of the City Churches website has a handy list of churches which are open thanks to its Friends Watchers scheme.

The Lutherans at St Anne & St Agnes last Sunday moved across the Square Mile to their new home St Mary-at-Hill.

The congregation sang all the way and carried vital items including the altar cross.

The St Mary-at-Hill churchwardens were waiting at the parish boundary near The Monument and walked with them.

Pastor Susan Peterson spoke about emptying of excessive baggage.

The first Lutheran Choral Eucharist at St Mary-at-Hill off Eastcheap will be at 11am on Sunday 2 June.

The future of St Anne & St Agnes has yet to be determined by the Diocese of London.

This Sunday 26 May the Lutheran congregation at St Anne & St Agnes Church in the City of London will gather as usual at 11am.

But it will be for last time.

After a litany of thanksgiving the congregation will walk in procession, carrying some of the treasured objects of the worshipping community, to its new home in St Mary-at-Hill Church off Eastcheap. The Eucharist will be celebrated on arrival.

St Mary’s parish priest Canon Flora Winfield says: “We are so delighted that St Anne’s congregations will be sharing in the life of this place, where the Christian gospel has been preached for over 1000 years, both in words and music and in loving service to the surrounding community.”

Susan Peterson is the Lutheran congregation’s  interim senior pastor.

The famous Fleet Street spire of St Bride’s is hidden by a wrapper during restoration works.

The parish has a £2.5 million appeal to carry out essential restoration to preserve the spire and ensure the future of St Bride’s.