This was the third ‘Hunt’ organised by the members of the Catford WI and again two teams from Lee Green participated in this truly fascinating tour around City of London Churches.
Starting at 10.30 from Blackfriars Station our route took us firstly to St Bride’s Church, then up Farringdon Street to the gated street of Ely Place, where we found St Etheldreda’s, which must be one of London’s most hidden gems, and the oldest Roman Catholic Church in England. The wonderful stain glass windows there were stunning, and the sheer tranquillity of the church was a tonic for our weary feet! We spent much longer there after finding our answer to the clue, and vowed to return.
It was a warm day and although the instructions were detailed there were some errors and finding Churches closed, such as Barts the Great, was frustrating. But when morale and tiredness was setting in we were buoyed again by the visit to St Stephen Walbrook. A church which I have walked past many a time from Canon St Station to Bank, and often wondered what it was like. Whilst searching for our answer to the clue, the Verger, who had opened the Church especially, gave us the history that this was designed by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London in 1666, and was his prototype for the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral. It was the first classical dome to be built in England at the time. He also told us that the Church is where the Samaritans began in 1953, founded by the then rector Reverend Chad Varah, and as a tribute to him there is an old black telephone with details of how this was the first phone to receive calls from people in need of help at the church. Despite its history, the central and unusual feature at the heart of the Church is very contemporary, and this is the enormous marble circular altar sculpted controversially by Henry Moore. Again this a place to revisit.
One of the highlights was discovering a memorial (shown in the photo above) to Alfred, the son of Henry William Forster, born in Catford and the first MP for the then newly created Bromley. constituency. Forster has a local connection to us as he donated the land which is now the Forster Memorial Park in Southend Lane, Catford in the memory of his two sons who both died in the First World War.
Although there is always some competitive nature with the Hunt in being first to get to the end, with all the right answers, it was a great day out for everyone and the best one yet. The most important and rewarding part of the day is definitely just taking part and having the opportunity to discover beautiful churches that were unknown to us and that we had never even heard of before and all on a glorious sunny day. One of our teams did actually win! Congratulations to our winning Team A with Jayney, Helen, Jackie, Jane and Dee.
Big thanks to Catford WI for master minding the day.
“A lovely adventure… so many interesting places to check out.”