Diary – 9 June 2007

A concert, ‘Raise the Roof’, at St James’s Church, Piccadilly, was held last month. We raised almost £30,000 with a musical evening and readings by Diana Rigg, Anthony Andrews, Edward Fox and John Standing. Edward read a piece about Anthony Ashley Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury. He was a great benefactor of the poor in St James’s and not only was Shaftesbury Avenue named after him, but the statue with its one foot pointing down the street of theatres, known to most of  us as Eros, is in fact of the Earl. His successor who suffered the incongruous murder in the South of France, supposedly at the hands of his wife, would surely have horrified his forebear, who did so much good work in Piccadilly Circus.

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The church itself, which is thought to have been Christopher Wren’s favourite, suffers from poor repair after receiving a direct hit from the Luftwaffe in 1942.