St Andrew's Church, Holborn

St Andrew’s Church in London’s Holborn is one of those fine, tasteful and even opulent churches for which the capital is famous. It managed to survive the Great Fire of 1666, but Wren rebuilt it anyway. It was not so fortunate when it faced the second major opponent of London churches: Nazi bombs. The outer shell remained but the rest had to be rebuilt. And well might they, for St Andrew’s has been long associated with the care of poor children.

Either side of its door are the statues of two children, symbols of Thomas Coram’s ‘Foundling Hospital’ which was a children’s home established in 1739 in this parish. The second association is with William Marsden, a surgeon. In 1828, he found a homeless little girl laying on the steps of St Andrew’s, dying of hypothermia. No hospital was willing to take her in, and she died in his arms. He therefore resolved to establish a hospital that was free, and available to those for whom “poverty and sickness are the only passports". His Free Hospital was the only one to remain open in the great cholera epidemic in the 1830s, so the young Queen Victoria awarded it a royal charter, and it is still known as the Royal Free Hospital to this day.

I do not care overly much for St Andrew’s ornate décor and prominent statue of Mary, but I am inspired by its association with looking after the orphan. We are fortunate to live in an age in which the state itself provides for the destitute, but there is much that it cannot give, like friendship, for instance. As a Christian, do not wait for a child to die in your arms or a teenager to end his life before you are driven to action. Befriend the friendless, comfort the mournful, support the weak and share Christ’s light with the benighted.