Doing the Lambeth Walk

THEY TOLD ME to head for the Elephant and Castle tube station. "Look for the Imperial War Museum exit." Futile minutes are spent wandering in and out of the myriad of underpasses that `greet' the visitor to Lambeth. With some relief I find myself on the right road and head down into a biting wind. To the left, the Museum stands apart; a stately, grand old building set in open grounds of grass and tree. St George's, in contrast, is set in a sea of traffic.
From the outside, the building looks a little out of proportion, somewhat out of kilter, as though the wind had blown the edifice down and a child had put the blocks hack together. This was Pugin's Cathedral, built in the 1840s, but the church was fire-bombed in the War and rebuilt in 1953 reconstructed from the shell of bricks and mortar. The exterior may betray the past, but the interior celebrates the present fusing Pugin's elevated style with brilliant modern glass, simple form and colour.
Fr James Cronin, the Cathedral Administrator, has been at Southwark for three
months but is already character of this fine church.
"Tradition says that this is where the mob gathered before the Gordon Riots then it was open fields." Coincidence then that St George's, the first Catholic Cathedral to be built after the Reformation, should mark the spot. We set off on a tour of the cathedral. The tracery of Pugin's windows remain, columns and comicing, hidden scented spaces. Underfoot distinctive tiles of terracotta, gold and blue. cover the floor of silent side chapels. It is a remarkable church. The cathedral was quite literally raised up from the ashes of the Blitz in the reconstruction a clerestory over the nave was introduced bringing light and air to the soaring interior.
It is the plainness and the simplicity which I love: high arches and curves, pale stone and shadow, winter sunlight filtered through the jewelled colours of the sanctuary window. The perspectives are magnificent. Against this edifying grandeur, side chapels dedicated to St George and St Patrick offer more intimate, quiet space. Chantry chapels jewelled and intricate boxes churches in miniature side the nave. Lord Petre, who brought the Society of St Vincent de Paul to Britain, is buried here in the Petre Chantry. "He was honoured by Pius IV for his work for the Catholics of England. When he died, his wife entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame. She became one of the great benefactresses this century."
To the side, a weekday Mass chapel has been created a sweep of chairs
against a backdrop of windows that portray the liturgy of Our Lady. Fr Cronin talks me through the imagery: "Mother most chaste, mother most undefiled mystical rose, rising star, House of David, the Ark of the Covenant." At the end of the space, half-hidden behind the curlicues of
wrought iron gates, the Lady
Chapel centres around an exquisite statue: "Our Lady of St George dates from the early 1700s and is thought to have been given by the Belgium embassy to its 'embassy chapel' in penal times". Fr Cronin stops to speak to a parishioner softly rocking her baby's pram: "I love sitting here quietly," she says, "the Holy Mother always answers my prayers".
"This church works on many different levels," says Fr Cronin. "We are the Mother Church for the archdiocese of Southwark, as a Cathedral we host civic events for the Borough but we are still, fundamentally, an inner city parish. This is a living parish and we must build on the foundations of what is. It was the presence of the poor in Lambeth which created the need for this church. The poor are still here and we still reach out to the different ethnic communities. C'mon," he says. "We're going for a walk," We head out into the clear afternoon. The late sun is setting behind the Museum
flooding the park with a
golden, orange light. Fr Cronin is striding ahead, oblivious to the cold. This is where I discover that I cannot write and run at the same time.
The Notre Dame secondary school for girls and St George's primary school arc away from the Cathedral. Schoolchildren are spilling onto the pavements. There must be something in the water here; I am frozen to the marrow but the infants are queuing at a van for ice-cream. "Have you learnt anything today?" he asks a small girl who has her ice-cream cone perched precariously with raspberry sauce dripping off the side. "Yes, lots," she beams.
Further on is a hostel run by the Mother Teresa Sisters. Twice a day they feed the poor, the homeless and the destitute. "Hundreds of people sleep out in this part of the Diocese." It's a desperate thought on this frozen day.
Fr Cronin speaks of the materially and the spiritually poor. "People are the same wherever you are they have the same values and the same needs. People need to know that they are valued and that God loves them. If you feed people's spiritual poverty then they will see the need in others." How does he cope with the problems of the inner city? "I am challenged by the inner city. We working in an area where you really are back to basics here, can't always trust your neighbour. But there is a wealth of personality. Some of the wealthiest people I know arc the poorest in spirit."
At Christmas the Sisters host a party for the homeless. "I think it is a tremendous witness. This church is still alive because God's people will be gathered on Christmas Day." Visitors to London should come here to Lambeth, to this great cathedral. "Oh absolutely. We are building the City of God. As Scripture says: `With Him above who strengthens us, we can do all things."
Christina White