St Giles in Camberwell has become a firm fixture in South London’s culture offerings: the grade two listed Neo-Gothic church offers a dramatic background for their famous ‘Organoke’, and has been hosting top jazz acts in its basement for over 30 years, writes Romilly Schulte…
Communal song is central to church traditions, but St Giles swaps the hymnal out to make way for a style of group singing we may not associate with a church venue – karaoke.
The event began as a project to restore and save the church’s historic organ, which now plays, alongside a full live band, everyone’s classic karaoke favourites for everyone to sing – quite literally – en masse.
While the St Giles remains the spiritual home of the night, it has also travelled to Battersea Art Centre and the Brighton Dome since being launched in 2016.
Jazzlive at the Crypt has been in the church’s foundations since 1995, and has since been one of the leading figures in the London jazz scene through its esteemed Friday concerts.
They merged with the collective ‘Jazz Umbrella’ to establish a charity in 2000, which has been promoting jazz education in the UK ever since, and has hosted top musicians from all over the globe.
Making up the modern church’s musical underbelly, the Crypt actually originated from the original 11th century Anglo-Saxon church, which inhabited the site until it was destroyed by fire in the 1800s.
Live at St Giles also hosts weekly sunday sessions with acts varying from the London Saxophone Choir to the Bach Plus Collective, their music oscillating between the religious and the secular.
In the more traditional line, the church boasts three choirs and regular evensong services.
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You can also look forward to other events in line with Camberwell’s wealth of cultural and artistic outputs, including film screenings by local record store Dash The Henge, often soundtracked by live music performances.
More information on music at St Giles can be found here and here for Jazzlive at the Crypt.
