I'm interested in all sorts of things, Linda. And, of course, Bentham was an atheist too
Also, the Christian Socialists emerged surprisingly from the Oxford Movement, and I was curious about that.
We started at the chapel at Lincolns Inn, which we were privileged to be allowed in, as an example of what they were reacting against.
Then we went on to UCL to see the 'secular' university which so got their backs up, and, of course, Jeremy with his magnificent hat.
Somerstown next, where the somewhat block-like parish church was an example of the early return to gothic styling, although it was rather poor.
Next to Park Village West, a Nash suburb, which, at No17, has a gothic styled house, where the first Anglican nuns took up residence in the 1840s, supported by Robert Southey.
Out to Bethnal Green next, where we saw Oxford House (or Oh! these days), which was a mission house, complete with Fives court in the basement for the Eton lads who went their to provide paternalistic intervention as 'lamps in the darkness'. Right at the top of the building is a panelled chapel which hints at a toned-down Oxford Movement style.
After lunch, we went to the uber-Oxford St Peters, London Docks, in Wapping, where the rebellious Father Charles Lowder built what amounts to a Catholic church. It has Stations of the Cross, a Pieta, Marian statues aplenty, candles galore, side chapels, and still advertises confessions and mass (the liturgy lying about was Vatican 2). There were pictures of children at their first communion on the wall. But it was the centre for some very active intervention in the slum area.
Last of all, we went to another former slum, to find All Saints, Margaret Street, in Fitzrovia. Gloriously bonkers and over the top, with gold everywhere, and tiled murals of evangelists and prophets.
A fascinating ride.
