|
February 2014 Newsletter - Issue 3 |
| |
|
Hello Dear Strangers
It's not quite a Festival, more a series of events, Huguenot Threads, is presented in partnership with the City of London and will run from 9 to 20 July. It will include three lunchtime lectures at Christ Church Spitalfields, walks in the City and in Spitalfields and events at the London Metropolitan Archive, Guildhall Library, the Worshipful Companies of Apothecaries and Goldsmiths, the French Hospital (including a visit to the site of the Huguenot Heritage Centre) and the Museum of London. We will be repeating the Rector's Tour of Christ Church and the tour of Bishopsgate Institute Library. Details will be included in the next Strangers' Newsletter, due out in May, and on the website www.huguenotsofspitalfields.org We are raising funds for the charity's heritage and educational programme, so do please support us and tell your friends. We have now been accepted by HMRC to claim Gift Aid on donations received, visit the Virgin Money Giving Website for details. |
| |
|
But the best news of the year is that the Bishop of London, The Rt Revd & Rt Hon Richard Chartres KCVO DD FSA has agreed to be our Patron. Some of you will recall the brilliant sermon he gave at the Thanksgiving Service last April, a copy of which can be read here.
|
|
|
| |
|
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
February 20th-22nd
Who Do You Think You Are? Exhibition
Visit the Huguenot Society's stand at the "Who Do You Think You Are?" Live Show at London Olympia. 9:30am to 5:30pm.
www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.com
April 2, 9, 16, 23 (Wednesdays) and April 6,13 (Sundays) at 11:00am
Spitalfields 1912: Then & Now |
| |
|
|
|
One April day in 1912 photographer C.A. Mathew probably missed his train from Liverpool Street Station and so filled his time by wandering around Spitalfields taking photographs. These wonderful images give us the opportunity to arrange the first fund-raising initiative in 2014 for the Huguenots of Spitalfields charity. |
|
| |
|
We meet outside Christ Church Spitalfields, visit the C.A. Mathew exhibition at Eleven Princelet Street (www.elevenspitalfields.com) and walk the route that C.A. Mathew probably would have taken over a century ago. Guides Tim, Paul and Charlie will make sure you have an enjoyable visit. No need to book. Donation of £10 per head.
April 9th 6pm - 8:30pm
Soirée in Spitalfields
Join us for a special fund-raising evening at a Master silk weaver's early 18c house. Meet Beatrice Behlan, Gina Pierce, Rodney Archer, the Gentle Author and friends. Click HERE for details. Booking is essential, contact info@huguenotsofspitalfields.org
Donation of £20 with a 'Red Bag' Raffle with wonderful prizes.
April 26th 10am
A Lasting Legacy
Conference in Rochester organised by the Huguenot Society with Dr Robin Gwynne as Chair. Speakers include Geoffrey Treasure, Randolph Vigne and Mélodie Doumy. Click HERE for details. Contact dnorth@btinternet.com
Every first Tuesday of the month, May to October
Huguenot Footsteps
We meet at 2pm outside Christ Church Spitalfields. Walks cover the silk weavers' and immigrants' story, architecture and historic Spitalfields. Donations £10 per person.
June 7th
Spitalfields Residents join the National Garden Scheme
If you have ever walked round the Spitalfields conservation area and wondered what was behind the elegant frontages of Huguenot houses, you'll soon have a chance to find out. Six residents will be opening their gardens as part of the National Garden Scheme. For details visit www.ngs.org.uk/
COMING SOON |
| |
|
|
|
Watch out for the Women in Art series coming shortly to BBC2. Anna Maria Garthwaite, the Spitalfields textile designer, will be featured in Episode Two. Huguenot silk weavers will feature again in the BBC Great British Sewing Bee which will be broadcast on February 18th at 8pm on BBC2.
The stunning designs, created by the pupils of St John Cass Primary Foundation School in Aldgate, will shortly be made available as postcards. |
|
| |
|
They cost £2 for four and can be purchased at the Town House, 5 Fournier Street, Spitalfields from April.
www.townhousewindow.com |
|
|
| |
|
YOU ASKED........ and Randolph Vigne replied
Why should I care about the Huguenots?
For their character as an incoming settler population who brought with them standards of principle, probity and patriotism towards their new country; and for their achievements through their skills as craftsmen, business people, soldiers, designers and as weavers – of silk and other textiles - as well as for their contribution to the churches, learning, medicine, even theatre and music.
Where did they worship?
Their mid-16th-century 'mother churches' were in London in Threadneedle Street (formerly with the Dutch in Austin Friars) and in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. By 1700 there were nine Huguenot churches in Spitalfields, fourteen in the city of Westminster, mainly in Soho, and a few further out, in Greenwich and Wandsworth, or St Martin Orgars within the City of London. Their major churches outside London were in fifteen towns and villages: non-conformists in Canterbury, Dartmouth, Norwich, Southampton and Thorney; conformists in Barnstaple, Bideford, Bristol, Colchester, Dover, Faversham, Ipswich, Rye and Thorpe-le-Soken; both conformist and non-conformist in Exeter and Plymouth, with smaller congregations elsewhere.
What was the population of London when the Huguenots arrived?
Around 500,000, at a time when 6 million lived in England; The arrival of 50,000 Huguenot refugees, is comparable to 650,000 foreigners arriving in England today.
What is their legacy?
It is summarised above in 'Why should I care about the Huguenots?' but also for their achievements in pioneering and developing such arts and skills as silversmithing, clock and instrument making, ceramics and glass making, including optic glass, furniture making, design, such as 'Rococo', and many other crafts. Their Officer class transformed England's run-down and inefficient army and benefited banking, insurance and commerce greatly, to our great advantage today. |
| |
 John Calvin 1509-1564 |
|
|
Prayer by John Calvin
"Lord, save us from being self-centred in our prayers and teach us to remember to pray for others. May we be so bound up in love with those for whom we pray, that we may feel their needs as acutely as our own, and intercede for them with sensitivity, with understanding and with imagination." Revd. Dr Graham Tomlin, Dean, St Mellitus College |
|
| |
|
SPITALFIELDS NEWS
Local resident, Will Palin, has launched the East End Preservation Society, a new organisation for people who care about the East End and are concerned about the future of its built environment. |
| |
|
So much is changing in the East End and Will and his supporters are trying to save Victorian pubs, local markets and to stop a 70+ storey skyscraper being erected in a residential area. Join us at meetings on 19 February and 3 March. To find out more, and to book a place, contact EEPS on Twitter @EastEndPSociety or Facebook EastEndPSociety or email eastendpsociety@virginmedia.com. |
|
|
| |
|
We are nearly there...
The Richard Bridge organ at Christ Church, Spitalfields, is currently being restored to its 1735 condition. Christine Whaite, chair of the Friends of Christ Church, tells us that .......We are fortunate to have enough original pipework and evidence to do this. When the renovations are finished, it will be an organ that will sound as it did in the early 18th century. This is extremely rare, if not unique for English organs, and particularly for one of this size. |
|
 Richard Bridge organ Christ Church Spitalfields |
|
| |
|
Christ Church will have one of Europe's, and thus one of the world's, finest instruments of this period. The instrument is coming on well and the large pipes are being installed, but the final £150,000 is needed to complete the lovely gilding work, the voicing and tuning. It is the skill of the organ builders in the voicing and tuning which will tell the world what an extraordinary instrument it is.
www.christchurchspitalfields.org |
| |
|
HUGUENOT HERITAGE CENTRE
The proposed Huguenot Heritage Centre (HHC) in Rochester has succeeded in its Stage 1 application to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and now awaits the final grant in March. But matched funds are still urgently needed and donations are welcomed through www.huguenotheritagecentre.org
If you have any objects that relate to skills of the Huguenots who came to Britain after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes that you are willing to loan to the Huguenot Heritage Centre, please contact Claire Adler on claireadler@btinternet.com
OUR FAVOURITE BOOKS
The Gentle Author's London Album, Spitalfields Life Books
Includes more than six hundred previously unpublished pictures of London, setting the wonders of our modern metropolis against the pictorial delights of old London. www.spitalfieldslife.com
The Huguenots of London, Robin Gwynn, Alpha Press. Describes the contribution Huguenot society made to English banking, commerce and the crafts and professions in London. Essential reading and a classic. www.sussex-academic.com
THANK YOU TO
Lynn Williams for loaning a panel of Spitalfields Silk for filming of The Great British Sewing Bee; British Land, developers of the huge Norton Folgate area north of Spitalfields, for changing the name of the development from Shoreditch Estate to Blossom Street; the Skinners' Company Lady Neville Charity for donating much needed IT equipment; Tower Hamlets Council for agreeing to replace the street sign for Nantes Passage which runs between Lamb Street and Folgate Street; and to the staff and pupils of Sir John Cass Primary Foundation School for participating in the Huguenots Educational Project.
CAN YOU HELP?
The Huguenots of Spitalfields charity was set up in 2013 to highlight the contribution made by the Huguenots to Spitalfields and to the other towns in which they settled and practised their faith. We need volunteers. If you are interested in local history and would like to be involved in heritage and education assignment, please contact info@huguenotsofspitalfields.org |
| |
|
We warmly appreciate all the support and help that you give to the Huguenots of Spitalfields Charity. |
|
|
| |
|
The views and opinions expressed in these article are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Huguenots of Spitalfields charity.
Please contact info@huguenotsofspitalfields.org with your comments, views and contributions or requests for previous issues of the Strangers' Newsletter. The charity is currently led by volunteers so do bear with us if there is a delay in the reply to your message.
Visit the Huguenots of Spitalfields website at https://www.huguenotsofspitalfields.org/ |
| |
|
