Westminster Meeting House
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Westminster Quaker Meeting House is a place of worship of the Religious Society of Friends located behind 52 St Martin's Lane in Covent Garden, London WC2. It shares its frontage with an adjoining shop. Westminster Quakers have been meeting at this location since 1883.[1]
The philosopher Bertrand Russell and the activist Alys Pearsall Smith married in the meeting house in 1894. In Russell's autobiography he relates that the guests at the wedding seemed moved to preach about the Miracle at Cana which offended his bride's teetotal sensibility.[2] The artist Richard Morris Smith made a drawing of their wedding and a photograph of the drawing was donated to the National Portrait Gallery by Barbara Halpern in 1999.[3]
Access to the meeting house is through a listed 18th century town house listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England.[1]
Meetings for worship are held on Sundays from 11am to 12pm; on the first Tuesday of each month from 1 to 1:30pm and on Wednesdays from 6:15 to 7pm.[4]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Historic England, "52 and 53 St Martin's Lane WC2 (1264792)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 10 July 2017
- ^ Bertrand Russell (1998). Autobiography. Psychology Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-415-18985-9.
- ^ National Portrait Gallery: 'A Quaker wedding' (The marriage of Bertrand Russell and Alys Pearsall Smith) | National Portrait Gallery, accessdate: July 8, 2017
- ^ "Westminster Quakers". Westminster Quakers. Retrieved 10 July 2017.