Many Lives at the Home Community Café

Home Community Cafe sign outside St Andrew's Church in Earlsfield

 

By the side of the road, in amongst the shops and the bars, stands a church. It is a grand building in the Victorian Gothic style, built in the late 19th century, soon after the railway brought development to what used to be little more than sparse open fields. A century earlier, these fields were renown for decades for hosting the infamous “Garrat Elections” – a raucous spectacle timed to coincide with general elections, where spoof candidates would pillory politicians through skits and speeches. At its height it attracted 80,000 visitors, much to the delight of local publicans (including that of The Leather Bottle, still in operation today).

When the railway arrived, the new station was named after a local house – Earlsfield – which had been demolished to accommodate the line; the owners had insisted the name be kept on as condition of the sale. With the station to the north and the newly built church to the south, the area expanded rapidly, transforming from a sleepy Surrey village to a thriving London suburb in a blink of an eye, largely stocked with terraced housing for working class families. Meanwhile the area picked up its name from the station – rather than vice versa – and it has been known as Earlsfield ever since.

Where once the church sat on a countryside lane, now it finds itself on a bustling high street. Where once it was the preserve of Sunday morning worshippers, now its doors are open throughout the week. Open in the widest sense, for this building is a place for anyone and everyone; a space that transcends the religious and the secular, the young and the old, this community or that. Under its towering vaults and arches, people come to gather and connect, in the same ways people have for millennia: through conversation, art, music and food…

 

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London Bridge Is Staying Strong; a Tribute to BOROUGH MARKET

Borough Market, London Bridge - where I am reflecting on the defiant spirit of London and its communities.

London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down.
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair Lady.

Build it up with wood and clay,
Wood and clay, wood and clay.
Build it up with wood and clay,
My fair Lady.

 

As I tread these streets of London, rain streaming off rooftops, puddles lining the paving-stones like little pools of transient street-art, concentric circles appearing and disappearing within them, I think of this city. This great great city.

It’s two days now after another senseless assault; people were hurt and killed. And my heart cries for them, and for the people who hold them so dear. And as I walk, I look around me, at the city streets through the driving rain.

I wander past London’s squares and structures, buildings and bridges: they whisper words into my ear, reassuring me with their stories from days gone by. History hangs heavy in the air, like mist, swirling through the city’s alleys and gardens, wispy tendrils of history clinging onto cobblestones and brickwork.

Too much history for some. And not always good. But in amongst the narratives of this city – tangling and jostling as they do – lies the very oldest one. One that’s still the loudest and proudest of them all – the indefatigable spirit of Londoners in the face of adversity.

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