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.
It's Hallowe'en so an appropriate day for something a little scary. This building doesn't look scary to me - but it is very noticeable in a long row of anonymous shops with flats above them as the 43 trundles down the Archway Road towards London.
In bright sunlight it shines as the rays hit the golden statues and surroundings. It doesn't look like it belongs in its setting, but it generally cheers the place up.
It isn't a church, and has never been a church. Rather, it is a Hindu temple in what was formerly a synagogue. As it happens it does not belong in its setting in another sense because the actual Sri Lankan community this type of temple serves does not live in this part of London. Still, there's not much gold visible from a 43 bus so it is nice to see.
Then there is the parish church, just a block further along the road.
A critic, upon its completion in the Victorian era, called it the ugliest church in London. It is quite hard to know every church in London so this seems like an exaggeration. Speaking for myself I would be inclined to place it on any shortlist though, notwithstanding some of the celebrated architects who helped to design (I use the word loosely) it.
As a Baptist I am not at all of the view that the church is the building. Nor am I well disposed to golden images on the outside of Places of Worship. Yet taking a step back from my theology and imagining myself on a search for a God who might welcome me I cannot escape the thought that on Archway Road it might a lot easier to step through golden portals to seek Him than enter what appears to be Europe's first nuclear bunker with its ventilation shaft.
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