FAITHFUL CROSS A HISTORY OF HOLY CROSS CHURCH, CROMER STREET by Michael Farrer edited by William Young ii FAITHFUL CROSS A HISTORY OF HOLY CROSS CHURCH, CROMER STREET by Michael Farrer edited by William Young, with additional contributions by the Rev. Kenneth Leech, and others Published by Cromer Street Publications, Holy Cross Church, Cromer Street, London WC1 1999 © the authors Designed by Suzanne Gorman Print version printed by ADP, London. The publishers wish to acknowledge generous donations from the Catholic League and members of the Regency Dining Club, and other donors listed in the introduction, which have made this book possible. iii Contents Foreword ..................................................................................................... vi Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 The Anglo-Catholic Mission ........................................................................ 5 Late Victorian Cromer Street ..................................................................... 17 Holy Cross and its Architect ...................................................................... 23 The Consecration ........................................................................................ 28 The Rev. and Hon. Algernon Stanley ........................................................ 33 The Rev. Albert Moore .............................................................................. 37 The Rev. John Roffey ................................................................................. 42 The Rev. F.E. Baverstock .......................................................................... 45 The Rev. L.D. Rutherford .......................................................................... 49 The Rev. F.R. Langford-James .................................................................. 53 The Rev. R.H. Le Mesurier ........................................................................ 57 The Rev. Napier Pitt Sturt .......................................................................... 61 The Rev. John Ball ..................................................................................... 67 The Rev. P. Wheatley, Bishop of Edmonton ............................................. 70 The Rev. T. Richardson.............................................................................. 72 The Holy Cross Project .............................................................................. 82 The Rev. B. Clover ..................................................................................... 86 The Present and the Future ......................................................................... 90 Pondering the Past and Facing the Future .................................................. 98 The Church in the Back Streets ................................................................ 102 APPENDIX: The Rev. A.H. Patten ......................................................... 108 iv v Foreword by the Right Reverend and Right Hon. the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres Joseph Peacock’s small but handsome church, dedicated to the Holy Cross, lies tucked into the very heart of a busy and varied residential community south of the Euston Road. It took a good deal of hard work to raise the necessary funds to build the church a hundred years ago and it is recorded that in the 1960s there were still some elderly local people who could remember, as children, giving their pennies to buy a brick. From the very beginning, the priests and people of Holy Cross were de- termined that their reverential liturgical style would not distract them from their primary concern for the poor of the parish. The history of this Chris- tian service, which continues today in the impressive work of the Crypt Project, is worthy of a wider readership. It is an eloquent testimony to the faith which has been nurtured at Holy Cross through the years, through prayer and attention to the need of neighbours. It is also an excellent ex- ample of what can be achieved when a church befriends the community generously in the name of Jesus Christ. It is sad that Bishop Brian Masters, who had a deep affection for Holy Cross, was never able to complete his contribution to this history. All those who have contributed have pieced together their memories with a similar love and admiration for a place where God has been discovered in all His freshness and power. I commend this work to you in celebration of the centenary, and in faith and confidence for the years ahead. vi Introduction William Young First mention must be given to my great-grandfather, G.S. Drew, a Hulsean Lecturer and Select Preacher, who, in the middle of the 19th cen- tury, was Curate at St Pancras Church and, briefly, in charge of St Pancras Old Church after its extensive renovation. Although an Evangelical, he, like Newman, was famed for an altercation with Charles Kingsley. Great- grandfather’s connection with this area, albeit some 20 years before this history begins in 1876, gives me, a deracinated Church of Ireland immi- grant who has spent some 15 years in Judd Street, round the corner from Holy Cross, a double connection with the parish. A full list of acknowledgements is on another page, but since beginning this history, occurred the tragic death, at a young age, of Donald Findlay, of the Council for the Care of Churches. For many years, I had served with him, on the Guild Church Council of All Hallows, London Wall. A metic- ulous scholar, he had produced a model history of All Hallows. I received two helpful letters from Donald, on the pitfalls of this project, just before he died. I dedicate this history, which he had hoped to supervise, to his memory. This book was originally to have been produced under the expert guidance of Dr Gavin Stamp, and was intended to have been part of the Centenary celebration of Holy Cross in 1988. Through pressure of work, Dr Stamp was, unfortunately, not able to compile it. He sent me valuable material when Fr Clover and his PCC most kindly allowed me to undertake the work. I was on Gavin Stamp’s original committee, and well remember plaintive parishioners looking forward to a work written by this eminent architectural historian. My credentials, I fear, are slender, but I have received invaluable assis- tance and have found the story of Holy Cross quite absorbing – a complete contrast to the archives of St Martin-in-the-Fields which I have supervised for the last fifteen years. It has been found convenient, and I hope not out 1 of proportion, to start this history with a brief résumé of the Oxford Movement. This is fundamental to all that follows. My colleague, Michael Farrer, to whom I owe an immense debt of grati- tude, has brought a lifetime of expertise to this earlier part of the book. We have attempted to produce material on each of the priests at Holy Cross up to the present day, although in some cases there was a dearth of available detail, and contemporary background has had to suffice. I have to thank Dr Alan Powers, in the midst of a crowded life, for producing the chapter on Peacock, the architect, and his work. Like Ian Nairn and Sir John Summer- son, he finds distinction in the commonplace. Coming nearer to the present day, I would have welcomed Donald’s help as to what part the present day should play in this story. I was myself, for some five years, a Founder-Volunteer in the Crypt venture, about which Mark Hyder has written, with the help of the director Julian Hopwood. My very good friend Fr Kenneth Leech has rightly given due and deserved ac- claim to the work done here; as has David Sturgeon, Consultant Psychiatrist, at UCH. It has proved a superb brainchild of Fr Trevor Rich- ardson and incidentally, of a parishioner, Ian Byatt (Director of OFWAT). This said, the principal object of the history was to portray the church it- self, its priests, its people and the quite extraordinary atmosphere it has generated – and continues to do. Here the word numinous might be appro- priate. Readers of the last few chapters will find a diversity of views about historical events and more general issues. I have encouraged each author to speak his mind rather than trying to give an ‘official’ account. The landlord of The Boot, an historic public house opposite the church, remembered with affection by succeeding congregations over the years, made to me a perceptive observation. Packie Hughes had attended a Req- uiem Mass for Princess Diana. He remarked to me afterwards in the pub, ‘That is a real church. That is a Holy Church.’ In the last letter that Donald Findlay wrote to me, he said, ‘Don’t be dis- couraged, William. I wrote a painstaking history of a church, and the manuscript was discovered unread, abandoned, in a vestry’. Holy Cross has not thought in terms of numbers. It has believed itself to possess some- thing of supreme excellence to pass on – to the few. 2 For exceptional assistance, I thank the Catholic League and Mr O’Brien, of St Mary’s, Bourne Street; also Mr Packie Hughes of ‘The Boot’ Public House, Miss Judith Scott, OBE, Mr Hamish McCrae of The Independent, and Fr Brendan Clover, former incumbent, who gave from his own singing fees. I thank also Sir Roger Wheeler, Chief of the General Staff, the Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields (my long-suffering boss) and his curate, David Monteith. To all at St Martin’s, a big thank you for encouragement. Donations have been given by Mr Tom Hibbert of the Tonbridge Club, Mr Rob van Mesdag, long-term Crypt