If you think it’s all been about Phoenix Ark asking for things via Crowd Funding, we’re happy to report that DCD has just been hard at work trying to support St Peter’s Church Vauxhall, in Kennington, no longer his manor, and to find prizes for a bake off they are holding in the grounds of Lambeth palace, tomorrow, June 28th. With quite a result too, because a bit of pushing and shoving, with some wonderfully spontaneous exceptions, produced tickets for The London Eye, Sealife, dinner at the Goring Hotel, several gastro pub meals and one from Wahaca, a lunch from the Bhuddist Jamyang Centre, hampers from John Lewis and Greensmiths, tickets to the Garden and Cinema Museums, a pack of lovely cake soaps from Lush, a voucher from Evans cycles and several other goodies, including a strange bread baking pot from Lassco called a Pancheon. Sadly Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic never responded to David’s personal overtures, unlike a charming letter from Joanna Lumley, but we hope it is a delicious event.
It is important too, especially with so many local people getting involved, because it is the 150th anniversary of that church, which will see a drive to raise money to restore the windows, clean the apse and fix the organ, in what is a very remarkable building architecturally and a symbol of the nineteenth century arts and crafts movement. The foundation stone, laid by the Prince of Wales for a church that stands smack bang in the middle of the old Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the altar supposedly on the site of the old fireworks tower, was laid concurrently with the founding of the local arts school. It is all much in line with blogs here about Edmund Shakespeare, Southwark, and the Garden Museum, but we very much think any funding drive should attempt to draw on interest in the history of the entire South Bankside of the river. Which is also why it was so delightful that the local restorer to some very venerable buildings, Szerelmy, have so kindly agreed to give a bit of free advice on costings. They have been in the neighbourhood as long, indeed it’s likely the business was involved with the original works.
PA PRESS
Phoenix Ark's Blog 