Our Lady of the Assumption

Anna Russell returns

Somewhere along the line I appear to have omitted Warwick Street. This would have been in the months after we were married that we began to sing on Sundays at Our Lady of the Assumption a beautiful church now in the care of the Ordinariate. The date we joined was Nov 17th 1974. Before that we had been to various churches on Sunday and my remarks are often quite scathing about the choirs we heard Spanish Place, Farm St, Kensington.  There was a professional group but the director Frans Busuttil welcomed amateurs to boost the numbers. He loved Bruckner and we had some thrilling Masses with brass in the gallery with organ and choir. This all came to an end when we moved to South Norwood but we enjoyed it. Of course there was the inevitable juggling act with chorus but we were allowed to miss one conductor's rehearsal so that would be the Sunday morning one! I was often amused at how the tenors moved around between rehearsal and concert. It was said that you could not be heard if you sat in the back row of the chorus at the Festival hall.