Fleet Street Carols

Our annual Fleet Street Carols service has become so popular over the years that we now run it twice! This year it will take place on Monday 21st December at 12 noon and 5pm.

When Fleet Street was the home of the newspaper industry, this was the occasion when all the printers, journalists, and news agencies gathered at St Bride’s, to celebrate Christmas together in a not-to-be-missed or forgotten Christmas Carol service.

We extend a very warm welcome to everyone in our parish and community, including local businesses, residents, and visitors, to come to this wonderful service and get into the festive spirit.

Featuring our regular brass quintet, Onyx Brass, Mick Doran, principal percussionist at ENO, and the phenomenal professional St Bride’s Choir, this really is a service to remember – so, ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful …!’

Admission

The service is open to all, ticketless and free to attend. Doors open 30 minutes before the service start which lasts approximately 1 hour.

A voluntary collection will be taken after the service – without your generous support these services could not happen. Suggested donation £15 per person.

As many of our Advent events are very busy you can reserve a spot for early admission. Registration for this will open in late October.

Music

Fleet Street Carols will again feature our old friends Onyx Brass, who will join us in David Willcocks’s evergreen versions of the best-loved Christmas hymns and serenade you before and after the service.

Choral music will again be a mixture of old favourites and the less familiar – John Gardner’s ever popular Tomorrow shall be my dancing day and Matthew Morley’s arrangement of the The Little Drummer Boy will be complemented by a lively, joyful setting of Nova, nova by Iain Farrington, a former organ scholar of St Bride’s who is now active as a composer and arranger, whose music featured recently at the Coronation, this summer’s Proms and at David Attenborough’s 100th birthday celebrations.

Support St Bride’s

St Bride’s receives no state funding and is wholly reliant on – and deeply grateful for – the generous support of our visitors without which these Advent and Christmas services could not happen.

There will be a voluntary retiring collection at the end of the service to support our work, musical tradition and help maintain our magnificent Wren church with a suggested donation of £15 per person.

Donations can be made by cash or contactless at church or via JustGiving.

You can also donate in advance via EventBrite if you choose to register for early admission to the service.

Do please Gift Aid your donation if you are eligible which generates an extra 25p in every £1 donated.

Additional Information

Directions to St Bride’s Church and information about accessibility are available on our Visit Us page.

If you register for early admission please arrive 30 minutes before the service. Your place may need to be released to others queuing if you arrive later than this.