The other day I wrote about seeing my friend
rehearsing in St Pancras Old Church, just across the canal by which I live. The church is old - it started to fall into disrepair in the 13th century, when St Pancras, now right in the middle of London, was surrounded by fields. There is an eleventh century altar stone still used in the celebration of mass today (it’s a Catholic church), and when it was restored in the 19th century, various Elizabethan treasures were found.But I want to tell you about the Gardens, which manage to combine three very Substackian areas of interest: feminism, literature, and rock’n’roll. Maybe there are thousands of other churchyards that pull this off, and you’re all reading this thinking, Pah, my local churchyard does all that plus mindfulness, world politics, wellness and fashion and beauty. But I will proceed with my feeble offering anyway.
a) Feminism: Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication Of The Rights of Woman in 1792, is buried here. She was married, pregnant with Mary Shelley, in St Pancras church, and died ten days after giving birth.
The stone here looks a bit of a mess, but those twigs and other bits and bobs are tributes to her. Mary Shelley came here often when she was a child, and then as a teenager, with Percy. It is possible - I’m not just making this up - that they had sex here for the first time.
b) Rock’n’roll. OK, you’re thinking. He lucked out with the feminism. Mary was one of the first feminist writers and thinkers. But who are the rockers? REO Speedwagon? Dave, Dee, Dozy, Mick and Tich? Nope. It’s the Beatles.
In July 1968, there was a Beatles photoshoot in St Pancras Gardens, part of what is known in Beatles folklore as The Mad Day Out - a day spent all over London taking publicity pictures. The photographer, improbably, was Don McCullin, who went on to become one of Britain’s greatest war photojournalists. Here are a couple taken at the entrance to the church.
And this is one of my favourite Beatles photos. See if you can find all four! (And the person blamed for breaking them up. They weren’t far away from doing so.)
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But there were a whole ton of pictures taken there. The crowd above are mostly local residents who came out to see what was going on.
c) Literature. And the big names keep on coming! This time. it’s Thomas Hardy. This one is a little more tenuous, but until 2022, when it toppled after disease and storms, one of St Pancras Gardens’ many tourist attractions was The Hardy Tree, an ash around which gravestones had been carefully placed. This is what it used to look like.
The Hardy connection is, well, a little loose. Hardy worked for the firm of Arthur Blomfield, an architect. Blomfield’s company was given the job of exhuming remains for the churchyard to make room for a new railway line. Some of the bodies had only just been buried. Hardy was definitely overseeing the job, but it may not have been his decision to arrange the stones so precisely - done, one must presume, out of respect for the deceased. The stones are fenced off at the moment while the local authorities decide what to do about the site. Anyway, Hardy’s employment was enough for the tree and its surroundings for it to acquire the nickname.
Pretty cool, huh? It’s not so big, but it packs a punch. Oh, and Dickens placed a couple of body-snatchers here, in A Tale Of Two Cities. Anyway, if you have some time to kill waiting for the Eurostar, head this way. You might find me there, vaping and trying to think.
And Sinead O'Connor played at St. Pancras Old Church too. She sang Nothing Compares 2 U there. What an incredible place.
Had a tour of McCullin’s Tate show by the artist. He was terrific.