Episode 9. Father Basil Jellicoe and London’s Slum Priests
SYNOPSIS
The construction of large railway stations in London such as Waterloo and St Pancras resulted in nearby slum parishes of vermin-ridden overcrowded housing. Ironically, these parishes attracted well-born priests whose sacramental Christianity had alienated the Anglican establishment but whose incarnational theology drew them to serve the urban poor. In 1894 the Christian Socialist Anglo-Catholic Charles Marson (1859-1914) was appointed curate and was celebrated locally for supporting the London Cab Strike. But perhaps the most striking and successful slum priest was Father Basil Jellicoe (1899-1935) As the First World War ended, he became Magdalen College’s Missioner in Somers Town, creating an early housing association to rehouse slum residents and opening a ‘reformed pub’ in 1929, serving its first drinks to the then-Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) and the Archbishop of Canterbury. In the interview Father Paschal Worton outlines the incarnational theology which drove Anglo-Catholic slum priests to serve the poor.
GUEST
Father Paschal Worton is priest at St Mary’s Somers Town which was built between 1824 and 1827. The church rejoices in the Catholic tradition of the Church of England. St Mary’s is now part of the Parish of Old St Pancras which continues to run social justice projects in the spirit of Basil Jellicoe.
Father Paschal’s interview with Simon Machin was recorded at St Mary’s on 1 November 2019 – trains to nearby King’s Cross St Pancras can be heard rumbling under the church.