Wednesday 23 April 2008

Happy St George's Day!


I spent the beginning of it outside the new entrance to Streatham Common Station with Labour's Val Shawcross, London Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark. We were of course campaigning to win votes in the forthcoming elections, and got a good reception.

Val was a big help in the campaign to get the new entrance built and open after years of struggle, as well as the new N133 night bus for Streatham Vale. She is a very hard worker and I hope she is re-elected.

After cycling to the Town Hall in the rain I was pleased to see, as I sped down Brixton Hill, that the red cross of St George had been run up the flagpole.

There's a constant reminder of England's patron saint in the form of an impressive stained glass window at the top of the main stairs. It's always an impressive sight when you are climbing the stairs, not because it is Edwardian stained glass speaking of England and Empire, but because the Third Century Anatolian-born martyr is also a patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Palestine, Portugal and Russia. An appropriate figure in stained glass for a town hall serving a diverse borough like Lambeth.

Talking of unity, I was pleased, as the new Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport, to help launch the Lambeth year of reading at Brixton Library this afternoon. The intention is to encourage people across the borough to read more, and pass a love of reading down to the next generation. The Lambeth Readers and Writers Festival will be a series of inspiring events for all ages and tastes. There will be talks by bestselling authors, discussions with new authors and poetry readings, as well as a play to mark the 60th anniversary of the Empire Windrush.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No-one really knows the true identity of St George. Historian Samantha Riches points out in her book "St George,Hero, Martyr and Myth" that many regions lay claim to being his birthplace including Cappadocia and Nicomedia in Turkey and the modern Palestinian towns of Jaffa formely Joppa) or Diospolis (Lydda). The Bretons even lay claim to him. Which all seems to make him even more multi-cultural.

Lord Curran of Perry Hill