With the February days being mostly cold and wet, I ventured out to central London to visit four more cosy church cafes. There are so many independent church cafes, ranging from tiny spaces in church porches to those catering on a large scale, all serving high quality food and drinks. I’m definitely going to visit more of them when exploring London: great coffee, great staff and interesting, sometimes beautiful, surroundings!

St Botolph without Bishopsgate – The Good Coffee Kiosk

This is a tiny takeaway coffee bar situated in the porch of St Botolph’s, just outside the City and a stone’s throw from Liverpool Street Station. No seating is available, but you are welcome to take your hot beverage through the door into the church and sip it in one of the pews. When I arrived at 10.40am most of the cakes and pastries were gone, I settled for a flapjack and a latte. The Kiosk opens a 7.30am and I was told by proprietor Melina that they often sell our completely by 11. As with other coffee shops I’ve visited, it’s part of the community outreach of the church, and Melina also helps other individuals to set up and run their own businesses. (She didn’t tell me that, it was on the website!) The coffee and other products are ethically sourced and produced and all profits benefit good causes. The Kiosk is open from 7.30am to 3.30pm Monday to Thursday.

Source: botolph.org.uk/the-good-coffee-kiosk

The Seed Café, Quaker Centre

On a completely different scale is this lovely spacious combined café and bookshop located in the Quaker Centre (Friends Meeting House) on Euston Road. They serve a comprehensive range of vegetarian and vegan food: hot dishes, sandwiches, salads, and cakes and pastries. I visited at lunchtime and it was very busy but it’s so spacious that it didn’t feel overcrowded at all. There are comfy chairs in the bookshop area but as I bought pumpkin soup and a cup of tea I elected to sit at a table in the main restaurant area. On the table was a card telling me how some of the products sold support community groups, and of course all products are ethical and sustainable. I love the name Redemption Roasters Coffee! The cafe is open Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm.

Source: bloomsburylondon.com/seedcafe

New Acre Café, Westminster Chapel

Unfortunately this café was closed for a private function but I was allowed to take photos of this cosy coffee bar. New Acre Café has an interesting history as part of Westminster Chapel. Less than 500 metres from the Chapel is an area that Charles Dickens called ‘the Devil’s Acre’: a place of poverty and injustice. Founded in 1840, the ministry of Westminster Chapel included establishing up schools and almshouses and providing safe houses for orphans and work schemes for the unemployed. Dickens was impressed with the way that Christians devoted their lives to improving the Devil’s Acre for the people who lived there, and the café was named New Acre ‘to remind us of the reason that God has put us here today’. The brand of coffee served is Old Spike Benedict Blend; 65% of their profits directly support people experiencing homelessness. The café is open Monday to Thursday 9am to 4.30pm.

Source: Notice in the cafe; westminsterchapel.org.uk

Wesley Café, Central Hall Westminster

Another large restaurant including a separate coffee bar for drinks and cakes/snacks, open on week days. There is also a Street Café which is open all week. The restaurant is in the basement and is a large space with a secluded area for booking private functions and business lunches. A range of hot and continental breakfasts, lunches and sandwiches is served, but I grabbed a latte from the coffee bar and a muffin from the enticing Sweet Treats table. The seating area was busy and I shared a table with a customer tapping away on his laptop, he worked at the Houses of Parliament just across Parliament Square. Apparently the café is a popular eating venue for MPs and staffers, but I didn’t spot anyone famous! The main restaurant is open Tuesday to Saturday 9am to 4pm and the Street Café with its outdoor seating area, is open Monday to Sunday.

Source: c-h-w.com/wesleys-cafe

Walking round the Square Mile of the City of London, there seem to be hundreds of coffee shops and cafes, all serving the thousands of City workers and tourists. There are the usual chains and also lots of independent businesses, including these four located in churches. Just the place to pop into for a warming brew when it’s cold outside. I decided to go on a ‘coffee crawl’ of these churches, including breakfast and lunch and a couple of loo stops!

St Nicholas Cole Abbey – ‘The Wren Coffee’

The Wren is named after the church’s architect Sir Christopher Wren. The whole church building is the café from Monday to Friday, 7am to 4.30 pm. It closes from 12.45 to 2pm on Thursdays for lunchtime Bible talks: St Nick’s Talks. The Barista who served me my breakfast croissant and flat white coffee was Josiah, who told me that the café is a convenient venue for the business meetings of the Financial Times, whose offices are nearby. He said that many customers are well known to the church staff and they come in for the Bible Talks as well as the coffee. When I visited there were lots of customers poring over their laptops whilst sipping their flat whites and lattes. The café becomes a church on Sunday mornings with a ‘regular’ church service plus the added bonus of excellent Fairtrade coffee and cakes!

Sources: Leaflet in the church and Josiah

St Mary Aldermary – The Host

The strange name of this church means ‘older Mary’, implying that this church is possibly the oldest dedicated to Mary in the City. The church website says ‘Host Café is seeking to restore the traditionally solitary space of our church building to its true vocation as a welcoming hub for the local community.’ All the drinks at The Host are ethically sourced and the baked goods are supplied by local bakers. Customers can choose to sit in a pew to drink their tea or coffee, or you can sit at a table if you’re having a meal. Food purchased from the Street Food stall outside the church can also be eaten inside the church. Each table has a charger for your laptop, and for a small fee, you can hire tables for a working lunch. I didn’t stop for a hot beverage this time, but I have done so previously, and the staff are very friendly!

Source: Church website

St Mary-le-Bow – The Café Below

The café at St Mary-le-Bow is located in the crypt as its name suggests. This is more of a restaurant than a café but the staff were happy to serve me a coffee (it wasn’t quite lunch time.) It was nice to be shown to a table and asked for my order. The café has nothing to do with the church above, they just rent the premises, offering slightly posher breakfasts, lunches and also licensed to serve alcohol. The crypt has been beautifully refurbished and decorated to provide an atmospheric dining experience, including private booths among the pillars. On each table is a card with information about the church, particularly the crypt which was formally a burial chamber. The graves were removed when the church was rebuilt after the Second World War, which I’m sure the diners are relieved to read!

St Mary Woolnoth – Newton’s Coffee

This cosy coffee is the smallest enclosed café I’ve ever visited, being situated in the porch of St Mary Woolnoth. The counter runs the width of the porch and there are three seats at the other end. There are also some tables and chairs outside in the tiny churchyard for sitting out in warmer weather. Mainly offering a takeaway service, there are hot drinks, baked goods and chocolates for sale. Newton’s Coffee is a social enterprise inspired by the life of John Newton, former slave trader who, following his dramatic Christian conversion, became Rector of St Mary Woolnoth and played a major role in the abolition of slavery. Profits from sales are donated to anti-trafficking organisations such as International Justice Mission. I was served by Desiree, wo kindly gave me a free pastry when I asked her for information about the coffee shop and told her what I was doing. Lunch sorted!

Sources: newtonscoffee.co.uk; Desiree

Usual round up of Nativity scenes, this year I’ve focused on small displays spotted in and around the London area, plus some interesting information about the history of the Christmas Wreath, which I always thought was a pagan tradition….

Another spectacular seasonal display at St John’s Belmont. The tradition of bringing evergreen plants: holly, ivy, evergreen trees and branches, into the home at the Winter Solstice goes back to pre Roman times in Northern Europe. The weaving of greenery and holly berries into a wreath symbolises the continuing of life and the seasons when the sun seems to have disappeared from the sky for ever. HOWEVER, the origin of the Christmas Wreath is as an Advent Wreath. It was created by German theologian Johann Wichern in 1839 with 28 candles (one for each day of Advent) out of a wagon wheel. The circular wreath, with no beginning or end, symbolises the eternal nature of God and eternal life through Christ. Prickly holly leaves and red berries were thought to represent Jesus’ crown of thorns and drops of his blood at the crucifixion. So although the wreath has its roots in pagan custom and tradition, you could say that theologian Wichern reinvented the wheel when he created his Christmas Wreath. (Sorry, couldn’t resist!)

Source: commongoodmag.com

I’d been hoping for some bright blue skies to contrast the reds and yellows of the trees in Autumn, as a background to some ‘traditional’ English churches. However, I haven’t been able to capture this in my photos, as what started as bright, sunny mornings quickly turned cloudy, dull and even rainy. But I was able to go inside some of the churches to see their lovely harvest/Autumn displays. These four churches are all in leafy Sutton and Surrey.

St Dunstan’s Cheam

This is the Parish Church of Cheam, occupying a site of Christian worship which goes back to Saxon times. The current building, built in 1864, replaced a mediaeval church, and when this was demolished, the East end of the chancel was retained to contain the monuments and brasses. This remnant of the mediaeval church is now known as the Lumley Chapel, which I featured on the blog last March. The current church is constructed and designed in the French Gothic style of the late 13th century. There is a charming lych-gate at the entrance to the churchyard dated 1891. The most famous of St Dunstan’s one-time rectors was Lancelot Andrewes, leader of the team who translated and compiled the Authorised, or King James Version of the Bible, published in 1611. Lancelot went on to great things, becoming Bishop of Chichester, Ely and Winchester. When I visited, St Dunstan’s was open and beautifully decorated for Harvest.

Source: Information Leaflet in the Church

St John’s, Belmont

It was lovely to pop inside St John’s and see another creative and beautiful Autumn/Harvest display. The church was built between 1914 and 1917 for the ever-expanding population of Greater London; a Church of England Parish church. It was designed by ‘major architectural duo’ Greenaway and Newbury in the neo-Gothic style. The church retains all its original fittings, and almost all of them were designed by the architects themselves. The font in the church dates from 1706 and originally came from a church in Oxford, and the East window was from a Victorian church being demolished. The building was extended in the 1970s and the nearby Methodist congregation moved in to share the building in the 1980s, sharing worship and administration since the mid-1990s. St Johns has become very active in the local community since then, and a community hall was built next to the church in 2002 to cater for a variety of activities.

Sources: achurchnearyou.com; nationalchurchestrust.org

St Mary Magdalene, Richmond

This is a Parish church built in the 16th century with additions up until the early 20th century. The original chapel was built in around 1220; Wikipedia lists ‘Years built’ as 1220 to 1904, so some sort of construction work has taken place for nearly 700 years! The church was entirely reconstructed during the reign of Henry Vll, who had been Earl of Richmond, Yorkshire, before becoming King of England. He rebuilt the Manor of Shene as a Royal Palace, which he named the Palace of Richmond. The small rural town of Shene subsequently took on the name Richmond too. There is a memorial stone in the church to three members of Lord Richard Attenborough’s family, who tragically lost their lives in the Asian Tsunami of December 2004. Lord and Lady Attenborough asked if the ashes of their daughter, granddaughter and their daughter’s mother in law could be placed in the church. It is uncommon for permission to be granted for church burial of ashes, but the diocese agreed to grant a faculty because of the family’s strong connection to the parish church; Lord and Lady Attenborough lived close by at Richmond Green.

Sources: Leaflet in the church; Notice board outside the church

St Peter’s Woodmansterne

On the edge of the Borough of Sutton, St Peter’s was built between 1876 and 77 in what would have been a very rural setting. There has been a church on this site since the 9th century, a small Saxon church in a sheep-farming village. Woodmansterne is mentioned in the Domesday Book as ‘Odemerestor’ which derives from Anglo-Saxon ‘Ode’ – Wood, ‘mere’ – pond and ‘tor’ – high ground. The name went through many variations until the name Woodmansterne became the standard description in the 15th century. The previous mediaeval church was demolished and entirely reconstructed in 1876 using some materials from the old building. Like St Dunstan’s, the church has a pretty lych-gate which was erected as a memorial to the men of the village who lost their lives in the 1914 to 18 War, with further names added in memory of victims of the Second World War. Today St Peter’s has an extensive calendar of events and activities: in October there was the Bus Stop Café, a Light Party, a local walk, a Quiz Night, a Film Club, fitness classes and uniformed children’s groups.

Source: church website: saintpeterschurch.org.uk

I said last month that my plan was to explore four more churches on the edges of the London boroughs: rural parish churches looking their best in the middle of an English summer. However, the first part of July was seasonably dull and rainy so I abandoned that idea to focus on churches in elegant, exclusive and expensive Mayfair, W!, where dull skies wouldn’t matter so much. My first research visit was on one of the hottest, cloudless days of the year….of course. History of Mayfair: The Grosvenor family acquired a piece of land on which an annual May Fair was held from 1686 to 1764. The Fair fell into disrepute and was considered a public nuisance so the Grosvenors embarked on ambitious plan to develop the area into high-value housing for the upper-classes. The design included a series of leafy squares: Hanover, Berkley and Grosvenor, which were once for the exclusive use of the wealthy residents of the surrounding large houses. The area is now more commercial than residential, with many of the houses converted to hotels, embassies and offices. And of course there are the high-end shops in New Bond Street, each with a doorman ready to open the door for wealthy customers who apparently can’t do so themselves. Mayfair is the most expensive square on the London Monopoly board. Development of the area continues by the Grosvenor Estates group. Now, on with the churches….

Source: Wikipedia

St Mark’s Mayfair, North Audley Street

St Mark’s Mayfair, is no longer a place of worship, having been converted to a high-end food hall: a venue for cafes, restaurants and bars and a flower shop in the entrance, all within a faithfully restored interior. This gives the inside space a real ‘Wow factor’, and after the initial shock (to someone who loves church buildings), it’s actually quite stunning. So what brought about this radical change of use? St Mark’s was built between 1825 and 1828 to accommodate the increase in the population as the upper classes moved from the countryside into the aforementioned high-class housing. It was constructed in the Greek Revival style with a Romanesque open roof structure added in 1878, now a rooftop bar! St Mark’s was informally known as the American Church because of its proximity to the American Embassy, not the only church to have an American connection, as we’ll see. Two famous American worshippers at the church were President Dwight Eisenhower and President’s wife and activist Eleanor Roosevelt. The congregation began to decrease in the 1950s and the church was deconsecrated in 1974. Empty for 20 years, it was placed on English Heritage’s ‘Buildings at Risk’ register. From 1994 to 2014 (another 20 years) the building has served as a base for a Christian social action group, a music venue and a venue for high profile events such as London Fashion Week. Finally it was acquired by Grosvenor Estates in 2014, and a £5 million renovation and refurbishment project resulted in the building we see today: Mercato, Mayfair.

Source: Wikipedia

Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street

Walking from North to South Audley Street should have been straightforward, but my progress was somewhat hampered by ongoing Grosvenor Estates developments. A little more history about the Grosvenor family: between 1720 and 1740 a network of new streets was laid out between Regent Street and Park Lane, with Oxford Street to the North and Piccadilly to the South. The development of houses was specifically for the aristocracy and upper classes and the land belonged to Sir Thomas Grosvenor, who had acquired it on his marriage to heiress Mary Davies in 1677. I think Sir Thomas did quite well out of his decision to build this type of housing! A number of small proprietary chapels were erected by private enterprise to attract the affluent, fashionable residents, small being exclusive, perhaps? The foundation stone of the Grosvenor Chapel was laid on 7th April 1730 by Sir Richard Grosvenor who had leased the site for 99 years at a peppercorn rent. When the lease expired in 1829 the Chapel became a ‘chapel of ease’ to St George’s, Hanover Square (featured later.) During the Second World War, men and women of the American armed forces worshipped at Grosvenor Chapel, perhaps preferring a smaller church. The chapel has never become a parish church, so it relies on donations from the regular congregation and visitors. Today it is very active in the community, providing weekly lunches to asylum seekers, hosting a local cultural festival and is a concert venue, and was used in the 1994 film Love Actually.

Source: Leaflet in the Chapel

Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception (Farm Street Church)

Right next to Grosvenor Chapel is a short street leading to the pretty St Georges Gardens. Here there is an entrance to the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception, a large and ornate Catholic Church known as Farm Street Church. This is the newest of the four churches, being established in the 1840s when the Jesuits sought a location for their London church. The street was originally a mews, part of a farm which still existed more than 100 years after the development of the area. The spectacular façade in Farm Street is an imitation of Beauvais Cathedral and the interior of the church is no less dramatic, being designed in the Gothic Revival style. In his 1999 guidebook, Thousand Best Churches, Sir Simon Jenkins writes: ‘Not an inch of wall surface is without decoration, and this in the austere 1840s, not the colourful late Victorian era.’ A striking contrast to the ‘flamboyant Gothic’ style is a modern painting, oil on canvas, by Andrew White (2013). The painting was installed in the church in 2018 and depicts Jesus and His disciples at The Last Supper. The commentary reads: ‘This point was surely one of the most poignant and sacred moments of Christ’s ministry on earth.’ The painting really captures this; the expressions on the faces of Jesus and the disciples are grave and thoughtful. Unfortunately it was very difficult to take a good photo as the side chapel was in darkness, I tried with flash and without. I hope you can get some sense of the atmosphere and mood of the painting.

Source: Leaflet in church; Wikipedia

St George’s, Hanover Square

This last church is in St George Street between fashionable New Bond Street and Regent Street. This is the Parish Church of Mayfair, built between 1721 and 1724 as part of a project to build fifty new churches in the ever-expanding capital: the Queen Anne Churches. The church was designed by architect and surveyor John James, who with the more famous Nicholas Hawksmoor, designed and remodelled several other churches and prominent buildings in London. The grand portico of the church, supported by Corinthian columns, projects over the pavement which must have looked very dramatic when the church was first built. The church has been a popular venue for society weddings since it was built, the most famous marriage was between Theodore Roosevelt, soon to be 26th President of the US and fellow-American Edith Carow, in December 1886. The third of our churches with a connection to the US, St George’s is less than half a mile from Grosvenor Square, site of the American Embassy until 2017, so was used as a place of worship for American servicemen and women during the Second World War. Inside the church are wooden plaques all around the balcony listing the names of all the church wardens since the church opened until the present day. In contrast to the modern painting of The Last Supper in Farm Street Church, William Kent’s ‘Last Supper’, painted in 1724, was installed in St George’s church on its completion. Nearly 290 years between these two paintings!

Source: Leaflet in the church, Wikipedia,