Hammersmith church unveils big new season of music and arts

St Peter’s Church in St Peter’s Square has launched a cultural programme of free or low-cost events.

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Gareth Malone

Tucked away in leafy corner of Hammersmith is a historic church on a mission.

St Peter’s Church in St Peter’s Square has launched a cultural programme aimed at bringing free or low-cost events to the local community – with music, art, talks and even a pantomime on the cards for the coming months.

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Susanna Meszaros

Music lovers can head to the church in Black Lion Lane this Friday (7 September) for a concert featuring performances from the Romantic period of the first part of the 19th century.

The 50-minute ‘Cello Meets Piano’ concert – featuring Susanna Meszaros on the cello and Natasa Sarcevic on the piano – starts at 1pm and is free to attend, with a collection at the end.

The concert is organised through the church’s cultural programme – Quidam – which launched at the beginning of the year and has so far attracted around 2,500 attendees to its regular events.

Quidam co-ordinator Caroline Langton explained: “Our principal aim in setting up the Quidam events programme was to attract more local people into our beautiful church as it is as much their heritage as the worshipping community.

“We want the profile of St Peter's to be raised and for people to regard it as a friendly, interesting, beautiful, historic place of culture and fellowship, with no overt religious messaging at all.”

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St Peter’s Church

The church has also been involved in developing an informal community choir, SingWest, which meets each Monday evening and recently took part in the Hope for Grenfell Memorial Gala concert on 13 June, under the instruction of TV choirmaster Gareth Malone.

From September, SingWest is planning to expand to include a junior section, added Caroline, with membership concessions available for families in need.

Meanwhile, a series of monthly lunchtime recitals is set to relaunch in the autumn, after a successful run of concerts featuring performances from the Royal College of Music and London Young Sinfonia earlier this year.

“We want St Peter’s to be a resource and arts hub for the community, in the same way that St Martin in the Fields is for central London,” said Caroline.

“People will be able to drop by in their lunch break to listen to some uplifting music, then go back to the office. We’d really like it to be used in this way. One of our golden rules is to make these events as accessible as possible.”

To find out more about any of the events in the Quidam programme at St Peter’s, visit www.stpetersw6.org or email quidamw6@gmail.com.

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Natasa Sarcevic

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