The Rev Simon Grigg, a former stage director, welcomes our writer to St Paul’s in Covent Garden, where the stars worship
“She’s a very good Christian soul, but not the dynamic person the organisation needs,” the Rev Simon Grigg booms on the phone as I arrive. The ebullient rector of London’s St Paul’s church, Covent Garden, fondly known as the Actors’ church, carries himself as much like an impresario as a priest. “It has been said,” he admits. Following a pre-ordination career as a director and stage manager, nabbing this gig in 2006, he says, was a “bit of a dream come true”. Faith and pizzazz are unexpectedly aligned at St Paul’s, a supportive presence in London’s theatre industry.
On the west of Covent Garden’s Italianate piazza, theatricality is baked into the building’s fabric, a 1631 masterpiece by Inigo Jones, architect and pioneering theatre designer. “We’ve spent a fortune on restoration,” Grigg says. Like the setting for an exuberant musical, there’s gold leaf everywhere, from candlestick bases to the pulpit cherubs: “This is the jewel of Covent Garden and I want it to glitter.”
