St John's Smith Square

This afternoon we attended a performance of Bach's St John Passion performed by Polyphony and the Britten Sinfonia.  It really was a quite stunning performance, quite operatic in style and wonderfully performec.  The only thing that slightly marred the event was somone's phone going off at a particular moment of silence.  Why do they do that?  For the rest of the performance, perfect silence and no applause until after a moment of reflection at the end.

The Church is wonderful.  Designed in 1728 by Thomas Archer, it is famous for the story of how it got its nickname of "Queen Anne's Footstool".  It is said that Archer consulted Queen Anne about the design and she kicked over her footstool and said "like that!"  Whatever the case, its shape is very dramatic

Hit by an incendiary bomb in 1941 the gutted remains remained so until plans to restore it in 1962 were mooted and it opened in 1969.  It is now one of the significant concert halls in London and its proximity to the Thames, Westminster Palace and Westminster Abbey make the walk to and from it a delight.

Look forward to the next concert!