A polyglot at prayer

by Andrew Hammond

One of the joys of this country is its fascinating and unending layering of peoples and languages - some who visit, and some who stay and enrich us. For those who have a religious faith the scope is correspondingly kaleidoscopic. A few minutes trawling across the net will find you a place of worship pretty much whatever your faith, and probably in your own language. For those whose religion shares a universal language, be it, say, Arabic, Sanskrit or Hebrew, the task is easier of course. The great faiths who pray in a common language are well catered for, and not just in London.

But this cornucopia is pre-eminent in London, as you would expect. So here is a little taster of just a few of the more eye-catching or fascinating places. It's a bit of a European church-crawl, really, with a couple of left-field surprises at the end.

A few paces from the noise and mess of Leicester Square, one of the more lamentable fruits of pedestrianisation in London, is the little piece of tranquillity and spiritual nourishment that is Notre Dame de France.

This Roman Catholic church was founded in the 19th century to cater for the French working-classes in London (the plus snob were already sorted), and for a long time was served and run by the Marists, a religious order who specialised in ministering to the poor - in Spitalfields, for instance. It was reconstructed in the 1950s, and one of the contributing artists was none other than Jean Cocteau. A whole side-chapel is devoted to his murals, which he painted in a concentrated week of work in 1959. This is worth a pilgrimage in itself.

After a long absence the Marists returned in the 1990s and rejuvenated the church building and its life, so that it now serves several francophone communities, including many Africans. It also holds Taize services and offers ministry again to the poor, especially the homeless.

A rather more flamboyant Catholic church, and one of the great hidden places in London, is the Italian Chiesa Italiana di San Pietro.

This began life in 1863 as a church for various nationalities, but it eventually became known as the Italian church. Its architecture is - somewhat circuitously - based on the church of San Crisogono in Trastevere, Rome. Circuitously in that the architect was an Irishman (Bryson), drawing on the designs of a Bolognese (Gualandi). Like the French church in Leicester Square, this happened at the behest of Cardinal Wiseman, whose concern for the provision of good worship and pastoral care for immigrant populations in London was active and energetic. San Pietro - not on the tourist runs, you have to make a trip to Clerkenwell Road (north of Holborn) to find it - is in an area which used to be London's 'Little Italy'. Italians do not live there in any numbers now, but the church is certainly a little bit of Italy in London.

They may not do flamboyance like the Italians, but the Swedes can do vigour and warmth, as a visit to the swedish Paris Church in London will soon show. As I write, the long-standing and much-loved Rector (of 26 years standing), Lennart Sjostrom, is about to finish his time there. The Swedish congregation has been established in London since 1710. Its energy is unabated, and its place in London's church life is hugely enriched by their ecumenical work. The church is rather beautiful too, as this bird's-eye image captures.

If you drive (do not attempt public transport for this trip) for about three hours north/north-east from London, you can find yourself in the middle of north Norfolk. Here there is a village where a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1061 made this a pilgrimage site which is now probably more visited than at any time in its history. There are major Church of England and Roman Catholic shrines here, as well as other traditions including pan-Orthodox congregations. Indeed, the Orthodox have very imaginatively taken over an old station house (note the post-Beecher onion dome…).

This little village receives many thousands of pilgrims every year, most of whom visit either the Anglican or Catholic shrines. There was something of a hiatus (about 400 years) after Henry VIII's depredations, but the passionate work of an Anglican catholic called Father Alfred Hope Patten restored it in the 1920s and 30s. Even with a reasonable grasp of the minutiae of Christian denominations, you can be foxed there. The Anglican shrine (in the village itself) boasts a Holy House (the epicentre of this 'England's Nazareth') and a relic of the True Cross, complete with full Vatican pedigree. The Roman Catholic shrine, a mile outside the village (you're supposed to walk there barefoot), is less-than-reverently known as the Habitat chapel (lots of pine in the design). The whole village merits a visit; it also caters to the visitor with material as well as spiritual needs - there is a wonderful farm shop, and even a chocolate shop.

One more suggestion in London. Way up in the north-west is Neasden, not usually on the tourist trail unless you are a fan of arterial ringroads; but here is an absolute marvel of religious architecture. Can you believe that this picture is of a temple in London?...

This world-famous new temple is the Swaminarayan Hindu Mandir. The statistics are extraordinary. It is the largest Hindu stone Mandir in the western hemisphere, built of 2,820 tonnes of Bulgarian limestone and 2,000 tonnes of Carrara marble which were taken to India, carved by some 1,500 craftsmen and brought to London. It all took less than 3 years, and opened in 1995. It is utterly remarkable, and has attracted a sequence of VIP visitors - not mention the three million plus 'ordinary' pilgrims. Go, and be amazed.

© Andrew Hammond. All views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to the European Commission.