Music&Data

It’s the Monday after my birthday. Getting old now, you see. I decided this year to celebrate in London. A place i’ve not lived in for nearly a year now but a place that will forever be home, having been my playground for over a decade of my formative years.

You learn something after being a Londoner for awhile… you learn London’s great secret. Change is always just round the corner. Little stays the same. At it’s best, it’s exciting: thrilling. Full of adventure. At it’s worst… it’s transient. It can be lonely. Ironic given it’s population.

Perhaps it’s the case that the very thing that keeps London alive is the very thing that makes it so unforgiving.

But then there are some things that never change. Roads you travel but never see the end of. Shops you walk past but never go in. Buildings you look at but never know the purpose of. That latter point of course is what brings me to write this post. The wonderful secrets of St Martin-In-The-Fields.

As famous as it is for pigeons as it is for camera wielding tourists, Trafalgar Square is the gateway to London from the South. The giant fountains served up picture perfect with The National Portrait Gallery as a culture laden backdrop.

With so many cameras pointing north, few heads turn right. London folk live in a perpetually eyes-forward commute and much like the tourists will seldom notice the church, sat upon its pile of steps over to the right, adjacent to Charing Cross. Perhaps they should though.

Sat next to South Africa house, St Martins backed the anti-Apartheid demonstrations at a time when Margaret Thatcher publically called Nelson Mandela a terrorist.

Amnesty International, a global peace keeping mission was founded within it’s walls. An idea that dreamed of dialogue over fighting and peace over war.

Shelter, the ever necessary homeless charity started in it’s basement. What started as a fight to solve a local problem has evolved into a national necessity. Disgusting as it is that we even need it.

In this day and age, it’s on the cutting edge of doctrine; leading the way with LGBT acceptance within the church. Let us not forget. The church may not be as relevant in 2019 as it was ages past, but make no mistake, humility, forgiveness and compassion will never go out of fashion. In times of crisis… and I personally deem Brexit a crisis, we need traits like that more than ever, irrelevant of their source.

So next time you’re walking through Trafalgar Square, or slinking through on the top deck of the nightbus, take a moment to glance at St Martins In The Fields. Be you a religious person or be you not, if you believe in equal rights, in peaceful resolve, in compassion and indeed in ending the travesty that is homelessness in our wealthy capital, it stands to remind us all that we can… and probably should be better.

It’s not a lot but I just donated £10 to shelter. If you’ve read this, and want to buy me a birthday present… bung them a quid – because you can.