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.
