Londinium marks the 75th anniversary of the Festival of Britain with a performance at St John's, Waterloo, restored in 1951 to serve as the Festival Church. Inspired by one of the Festival's pavilions, which characterised the British as part sturdy Lion and part playful Unicorn, we juxtapose fine works from the Festival's choral programmes - including music by Purcell, Parry, Vaughan Williams, Howells, and a host of Renaissance composers - with a series of visionary pieces which the planners overlooked, by Gustav and Imogen Holst, Warlock, Britten, and Tippett. Our programme also brings to life other aspects of the lost pavilion, which celebrated Shakespeare, the King James Bible, British Freedoms (Ethel Smyth's 1910) and the world of Lewis Carroll (Jim Clements' The Jabberwock), to create a rich and varied tapestry of superb British music.

Tickets
Tickets will be available shortly; please bookmark this page or join our mailing list below. They include a complimentary programme, and wine will be served in the interval.

The Music
Charles Wood: Hail, Gladdening Light
Anon: Sumer is icumen in
Thomas Morley, arr. Andrew Griffiths: It was a lover and his lass
Henry Purcell: Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts
Gustav Holst: The Evening Watch
Hubert Parry: There is an old belief (from Songs of Farewell)
Christopher Tye: Omnes gentes, plaudite manibus
Benjamin Britten: Hymn to St Cecilia
- INTERVAL -
Ethel Smyth: 1910
William Byrd: Assumpta est Maria
Howells: Salve Regina
Robert Ramsey: When David heard
Imogen Holst: A Hymne to Christ
William Mundy: O Lord, the Maker of all thing
Michael Tippett: Plebs Angelica
Peter Warlock: The Birds
Jim Clements: The Jabberwock
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Three Shakespeare Songs