JUST a few paces from the tradi
tional heart of London-a matter of yards from Piccadilly Circus-a hall redecorated, refurnished and flower-decked, and with' a shining new floor, was re-opened on Thursday last week by stage and radio star Anne Shelton, for the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street.
Miss Steelton made a little speech -and sang many songs.
Under the 200-year-old presbytery, the old hall, closed for "remodelling" some six months ago, has emerged as a bright, cosy meeting place. Graceful, round-topped arches painted yellow disguise the former pillars.
Yellow and green surrounding paint, bright curtaining, and a new rust-coloured polished composite dance floor give an Eastern appearance that would not be too unfamiliar to the first inhabitants of the house-the Portuguese, for at one time the church was their Embassy chapel..
From early penal times the Assumption Church, as the Bavarian Embassy chapel, was protected by extra-territorial rights one of a handful of such chapels in 1.ondon where Mass could be said openly.
Warwick Street parish will be remembered for its energetic campaign some years ago when, under the direction of Fr. J. P. Waterkeyn, the former parish priest, many signatures were collected on an illuminated petition for the definition of the Dogma of Our Lady's Assumption.