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Tuesday 12 March 2024

Christianity from the 43 bus: 10. The Leysian Mission

Continuing a journey through London on the 43 bus route - with a Christian eye.  The whole series is viewable on the '43 bus route' tag below.

The 43 heads out of the centre of Islington down City Road towards the City of London.  City Road is probably most famous for Moorfield's Eye Hospital, one of the world's major centres for eye surgery.  These days the road is populated with many contemporary high-rise glass buildings, but at its end comes this building.


Looking the part as a rival to Harrods it is an eye-turning place despite being near central London's many grand exteriors.  It was The Leysian Mission.

The Leys School in Cambridge was a Methodist School designed to prepare non-Anglicans to enter degree study at Cambridge University - something only made possible in the 1870s.  Graduates of this elite school set about the improvement of the wretched social needs of London's East End.  Originally deep in the East End, this was the second, grander property, at the very edge of the East End but wielding a wide influence.

The story is even better than the building, but perhaps inevitably it is today apartments.

Monday 26 February 2024

Christianity from the 43 bus 9. People History

Continuing a journey through London on the 43 bus route - with a Christian eye.  The whole series is viewable on the '43 bus route' tag below.

St Mary's Church, Islington has a bus stop so it is hard to ignore from the 43 bus.  Were it not for that, though, it might be thought to be just another of a plethora of churches along the route.  It lacks the grandeur of Union Chapel, not far up the street.  

But this church has more history via its people than any short blog could ever tell.

Think Charles Wesley, for example.  The hymnwriter of such predominance that even in the fragmented Western church worship patterns of the 21st century all of us still sing his hymns in some form.  Charles, together with George Whitfield, were invited preachers by the minister of this church and preached regularly.  Complaints were made to the Bishop of London, and it was here that both of them were forbidden to preach in Churches.  Instead they adopted the open air preaching already embraced by John Wesley and the rest is (Methodist) history.

A hundred and fifty years earlier, this was the Church where Robert Browne was the preacher, the generally recognized founder of Congregationalism and therefore in some ways the inspiration for the Pilgrim Fathers setting out for the New World.  They were dubbed Brownists.  So that's two denominations that owe their identity somewhat to this parish church.

But Anglicanism too has history here.  The first black African priest was ordained here in the 1700s, that's right, the 1700s..  The man who later became the first Bishop of Nigeria was trained here.  The founder of the Lord's Day Observance Society was vicar here before becoming Bishop of Calcutta.  The England cricketer - later Bishop of Liverpool - David Sheppard was a curate here while still playing cricket for England!

And the list goes on.  This is not a church building to turn the head on a 43 bus, but its story surely would.

Friday 16 February 2024

Christianity from the 43 bus: 8. Gigs and God

 Continuing a journey through London on the 43 bus route - with a Christian eye.  The whole series is viewable on the '43 bus route' tag below.

Like many London churches our church building sees its fair share of concerts and the like.  As a beautiful space in the community church buildings lend themselves to this, especially as other London venues are likely booked up or prohibitively expensive.

Both our building and its concerts pale into insignificance over against the monumental Union Chapel Islington.


This Congregational Church started life in a typical North London way - as a 400 seater chapel for the expanding suburb.  Islington grew at a phenomenal rate in Victorian days and so did the chapel, eventually being rebuilt with four times the original capacity.

It is one of the greatest surviving examples of the rise of non-conformity in Victorian England.


How has it survived?

Well, it cannot claim too much credit for that because at one point the Chapel's plan was to demolish itself.  A local outcry saved it.

From that came the notion of using it for entertainment and notably music.  Big time.  In this respect, being in Islington clearly helps.  Although it leads to several strange anomalies. 

The theology of the Chapel is wildly liberal, but that doesn't actually make for much of a congregation.  Ironically its founders largely derived from people leaving the parish church in order to operate on sounder Biblical principles.

In a kind of full circle it is currently used for the development of Gospel Music having previously been more 'out there' in its content.  It is just an amazing story; more fascinating than spiritually heart-warming, but undoubtedly a reflection of Islington past and present.

Link: You can watch a fascinating video of the Chapel's story here 

Monday 29 January 2024

Christianity from the 43 bus: 7. Caledonian Church

Continuing a journey through London on the 43 bus route - with a Christian eye.  The whole series is viewable on the '43 bus route' tag below.

These days are not auspicious ones for the Church of Scotland, declining at a breathtaking rate.  There are two Churches of Scotland in London - presumably to offer a purer form than the supposed English version buried within the even-more-rapidly declining United Reformed Church.

Neither of the C of S churches are on the 43 bus route.  But one long closed was, and lends a surprising tribute to an entity that will perhaps forever be part of the London namescape.


Today it is the Ramsay Scout Centre.  This is an unlikely spot for a scout centre, but once on this site stood Caledonian Church of Scotland.  It had a Scout Group in large numbers and Mr Ramsay was enterprising enough to secure the derelict site for the scouts' use as a centre.

Caledonian Church may seem an obvious name for a Scottish Church, but it was not that simple.  Caledonian Road nearby - with an Underground Station of the same name - vaguely points north toward Scotland but that isn't how it got it's name either.  Then there is Caledonian Market - but it doesn't really sell kilts.

All these Caledonianisms owe their existence to a school (an asylum in old terminology) for the children of poor Scots, not from this area but from the whole of London.  The Caledonian Church was a spin-off to provide a spiritual outlet and support for what became (thanks to Queen Victoria) The Royal Caledonian School.

So one way or another, this site owes more to children past and present than to adults. 

I like that.