The church of St Martin's in the Fields isn't in the fields at all, it's slap-bang in the centre of London on Trafalgar Square. It's been famous for a long time for the work they do there for the homeless and other people generally down on their luck, and every year there's a radio appeal from the vicar of St Martin's which never fails to raise thousands of pounds. They do a lot of simple, sensible stuff, like making grants to families who urgently need to replace something - maybe a cooker - but have completely run out the money to do so.
It's wonderful, what they do. It's a disgrace to our welfare system that they have to do so much of it.
They have lots going on there. We went there for lunch in the Crypt cafe on Sunday, and it was packed. Clearly a popular place to be. There were at least five services there that day, including one in Cantonese and another foreign language one, I can't remember what that was. Also in the crypt was an art exhibition, and a chance to look at the latest possible exhibits for the fourth plinth. (For US readers - there are three plinths in Trafalgar Square with statues on, and a fourth which used to be empty. Now and again they put something new on it.)
And there's a little shop where I bought some very beautiful advent calenders. And the Pearlies arrived - I'll tell you about them soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment