The Betjeman Society and St Michael & All Angels Church in Chiswick are celebrating Sir John Betjeman’s love of hymns and heritage. On Saturday March 1st, 150 hymns were sung in the church in Bedford Park, the world’s first garden suburb, to mark two significant anniversaries.
Hymnathon to be held at St Michael & All Angels: ChiswickW4.com
Hymns & Heritage: John Betjeman’s legacy: The Chiswick Calendar
50 years ago in 1975, the late Poet Laureate and conservationist began a series of broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 about his favourite hymns. The church held a hymn-singing marathon in his memory, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Bedford Park, which Betjeman helped save from destruction by developers.
‘Hymnathon 150’ took place on March 1st 2025, and lasted until 7.50pm, involving more than a hundred singers and several local choirs.
1. The first hour from 11am to 12 noon highlighted well-known Christmas and Easter hymns (‘Nine carols and no lessons’). See all the Hymnathon 150 hymns, hour by hour.
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2. The second hour from 12 Noon to 1pm was devoted to hymns chosen by Betjeman for his radio series, The Sweet Songs of Zion, later published as The John Betjeman Hymnbook, edited by Stephen Games.
“Hymns are the poems of the people” said Betjeman in the opening programme on Sunday July 6th 1975. He wrote that Bedford Park, Chiswick “is the most significant suburb built in the last century, probably the most significant in the Western world” and that St Michael & All Angels is “a very lovely church and a fine example of Norman Shaw’s work.”
In the 1960s, Betjeman spearheaded the campaign to restore St Michael & All Angels Church and, as patron of the Bedford Park Society, to stop the destruction of Arts & Crafts houses in the area. In the summer of 1967, no fewer than 356 houses were listed en bloc for preservation. Read: Betjeman and the Battle of Bedford Park
“It was one of John Betjeman’s most successful campaigns” says Fr Kevin Morris, the vicar of St Michael & All Angels. “My predecessor Canon Jack Jenner invited him to launch our church restoration campaign and to lend his support to a new Bedford Park Festival, to raise funds for the church roof and rebuild a sense of community. That was the turning point. And true to that spirit, the Hymnathon will raise money for our Heritage Conservation Fund and bring the community together.”
“Come throng the doors… and raise the roof”
Jonathan Ranger of The Betjeman Society says it will be “A very special event, not to be missed! Even if you’re not a church-goer, come and find inspiration on many levels, artistically and spiritually, historically and environmentally! Come, throng the doors from coffee-time to dinner-time, and raise the roof with such singing that it’s heard throughout West London and Old Middlesex!”
Hymns to be sung in The Betjeman Hour will include ‘For all the saints who from their labours rest’, ‘Onward, Christian soldiers’ and ‘Abide with me’, from the Radio 4 episode on Victorian hymns. ‘All things bright and beautiful’ and ‘There is a green hill far away’ will be be sung from the edition on women hymn-writers. With customary humour, Betjeman began this 1975 episode with the words: “Unlike women preachers, who are still a bit suspect, women hymn-writers have been accepted and respected for a century and a half.”
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3. The third hour’s hymns, from 1pm to 2pm, highlighted people and places in Bedford Park, including ‘The Church’s one foundation’, sung in 1879 when the foundation stone at St Michael’s was laid by Earl Nelson, grandson of the Trafalgar hero. They include: 417 O God our help in ages past: chosen by choreographer Gillian Lynne, which was sung by the ArtsEd choir for ‘Home on Sunday, BBC One 1988; 447 Sing praise to God who reigns above: in thanksgiving for the wedding 25 years ago of Fr Kevin & Miriam Morris, May 2000; and 353 Dear Lord and Father of mankind: sung at the funeral of actor Richard Briers, d. 2013.
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4. At 2.30pm (the schedule overran!), the singers began a five-hour Countdown of the Top 100 hymns, chosen by the public through donations for their favourite hymns. The church is listed Grade II* and donations will go to its Heritage Conservation Fund. See the latest Top 30 chart at JustGiving. See more at Top 100 Countdown.
5. St Michael & All Angels held its first Hymnathon in 1987, singing all 542 hymns in the New English Hymnal which had just been published. That lasted over 30 hours and attracted national publicity. The church did the same in 2012 and 2017 to raise money for its new pipe organ. Read more and see the film of Hymnathon 2017 here.
The Big Sing 150
In May, St Michael & All Angels will hold its next ‘Big Sing’ event with The Tabard, the neighbouring pub in Bath Road W4, which was also part of the original Bedford Park estate. The ‘Big Sing 150’ will take place from 4.30pm on Bank Holiday Monday May 5th, as part of the anniversary celebrations. It will also mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, on the day when communities are being invited to hold street parties. St Michael’s and the Tabard are inviting people to save the date and await further details of the programme of songs..
Further information from Torin Douglas: m 07860 422992
Read more about The Betjeman Society: https://www.betjemansociety.com
Read more about St Michael & All Angels Church: https://smaaa.org.uk
Read more about The Bedford Park Society: https://www.bedfordpark.org.uk
Read more about The Victorian Society: https://www.victoriansociety.org.uk
Read more about The John Betjeman Hymnbook: https://www.bloomsbury.com/in/john-betjeman-hymnbook-9781441164346/
NOTES TO EDITORS
* Bedford Park was founded in 1875 as the first garden suburb and its origins were inspired by the Aesthetic Movement of the 1870s. It immediately attracted a community of artists, architects and other aesthetic types and was immortalised in G.K. Chesterton’s story, The Man Who Was Thursday. An advertisement of the time proclaimed it to be “the healthiest place in the world (Annual Death Rate under 6 per thousand)”.
* Bedford Park houses, in the Queen Anne style of architecture, are based on designs by Victoria architects Norman Shaw, E. W. Godwin, E.J. May and Maurice B. Adams. Pretty tree-lined avenues of family homes with gardens were interspersed with artists’ studios. Community buildings, including the Church and Parish Hall, the Stores, a School of Art, the Tabard Inn and the Club, helped to create an integrated ‘village-like’ community, living in ‘sweetness and light’. See Bedford Park Society’s Galleries.
* Among Bedford Park’s ‘progressive’ early residents were the poet W.B. Yeats, dramatist Sir Arthur Pinero, architects C.A. Voysey, Maurice Adams and E.J. May, actors William Terriss and Florence Farr and artists T.M. Rooke and Lucien Pissarro, whose father Camille painted several views from the house.
* It was described by the Poet Laureate and heritage campaigner John Betjeman as “the most significant suburb built in the last century, probably the most significant in the western world.” Bedford Park’s buildings and community spirit became an inspiration and model for the creators of later garden suburbs and cities in Britain and around the world.
* During the 1960s some of the houses were demolished and others increasingly came under threat. In 1967, after a campaign supported by John Betjeman, The Bedford Park Society and St Michael & All Angels Church, Bedford Park became a conservation area. More than 350 houses are listed as Grade II and the church and inn are Grade II*.
* In 1958, John Betjeman was one of the founders (and the first secretary) of the Victorian Society, which has its headquarters in Bedford Park at 1 Priory Gardens, W4 1TT.
