‘The Meeting Place’ or ‘The Lovers Statue’ makes St Pancras ‘one of the most romantic meeting places’

‘The Meeting Place’ by Paul Day at St Pancras station is known popularly as ‘The Lovers Statue’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

‘The Meeting Place’ statue was the first thing we saw as we stepped off the Eurostar from Paris in St Pancras Station last month. The 9-metre tall bronze statue on the Grand Terrace shows a couple’s embrace and is known popularly as ‘The Lovers Statue.’

London and Continental Railways was responsible for the restoration of St Pancras, and it said in the brief for the commission that the sculpture should be romantic, democratic and as iconic as the Statue of Liberty in New York.

It is intended to evoke the romance of travel through the depiction of a couple locked in an amorous embrace. When the artist Paul Day created the work, he wanted to show a meeting of minds as well as a physical connection.

‘The Meeting Place’ is a 9-metre (30 ft) high, 20-tonne bronze sculpture at the south end of the upper level of St Pancras station. It was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II at the reopening of the station in 2007. It is reported to have cost £1 million and was installed as the centrepiece of the refurbished station.

‘The Meeting Place’ is modelled on the sculptor Paul Day and his French wife Catherine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

The work is modelled on the sculptor Paul Day and his wife. Day’s high-relief sculptures in terracotta, resin and bronze have been exhibited widely in Europe and his work is known for its unusual approach to perspective.

His other major works include the Battle of Britain Monument on the Victoria Embankment in London, the Iraq and Afghanistan Memorial in Victoria Embankment Gardens, and ‘An Urban Comedy’, a long terracotta frieze in the Royal Galleries of Saint-Hubert in Brussels.

A high-relief frieze was added to the base of ‘The Meeting Place’ in 2008. It features images from the history of the Tube and train, including: people queuing on platforms or travelling in carriages; soldiers departing for war and returning injured; and repair works following the 7 July 2005 London bombings. The frieze stirred controversy when it was first put in place, as one panel depicted a commuter falling into the path of a train driven by the Grim Reaper.

Day said the piece to be in a ‘tragi-comic style’ and believed it was ‘a metaphor for the way people’s imaginations ran wild.’ But he revised the frieze before the final version was installed, and replaced that panel.

The interesting details in the frieze include sunglasses reflecting commuters at the station, a ‘bag lady’ with and her dog, a woman checking her phone over the shoulder of her lover, and a family waving their loved ones off to war.

A woman checks her phone over the shoulder of her lover … the frieze below ‘The Meeting Place’ in St Pancras Station (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Paul Day studied at art schools in Colchester and Dartington, and completed his training at Cheltenham in 1991. He now lives in a village near Dijon with his French wife Catherine. Their Anglo-French relationship is an explicit and repeated theme in his work, and their embrace in the Meeting Place stands as a metaphor for the role of St Pancras as the terminus of the rail link between England and France.

One critic singled out The Meeting Place as ‘a very good example of the crap out there.’ Another dismissed it as ‘barely a work of art.’ Day accepted a ‘lot of people will no doubt detest it because it is not violent or controversial,’ and admitted ‘some will say it is a chocolate box sculpture.’

Despite these harsh criticisms from major figures in the art world, the statue has become popular with the public. The World’s Most Romantic Spots by the Lonely Planet in 2011 said the statue was a key reason for describing the station as one of the most romantic meeting places in the world.

‘The Meeting Place’ stands beneath a replica of the huge St Pancras clock, a work of art in itself. The original clock, with a diameter of 5.15 metres (16 ft 9 in), was said to be the largest clock at any railway station in England, with the hand 4 ft 5 in long and the minute hand 7 ft 3 ins Like all the clocks at St Pancras, the original clock was made by John Walker of Cornhill, London, and the clock dial was made of slate. The present replica was made by Dent with Smith of Derby.

Close-by is the larger-than-life statue by Martin Jennings of the poet Sir John Betjeman, who led the campaign to save St Pancras Station and the Chambers from demolition in the 1960s.

‘The Meeting Place’ in St Pancras Station stands beneath the huge St Pancras clock, a work of art in itself (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Lent with early English saints: 19, 3 March 2024, Saint Aldhelm of Sherborne

Saint Aldhelm (709), Bishop of Sherborne and Abbot of Malmesbury … a modern icon

Patrick Comerford

The Season of Lent began on Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024), and today is the Third Sunday in Lent (Lent III, 3 March 2024).

Later this morning, I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist in the Church of Saint Mary and Saint Giles in Stony Stratford. The choir has been rehearsing Psalm 19: 7-14, which includes words that were once traditionally used by preachers before they started their sermons:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be always acceptable in thy sight:
O Lord my strength and my redeemer.

Throughout Lent this year, I am taking time each morning to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated in Common Worship.

Before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, A reflection on an early, pre-Reformation English saint;

2, today’s Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Saint Aldhelm in a stained-glass window in Malmesbury Abbey (Photograph: Adrian Pingstone / Wikipedia)

Early English pre-Reformation saints: 19, Saint Aldhelm (709), Bishop of Sherborne

Saint Aldhelm (709), Bishop of Sherborne, is commemorated in Common Worship on 25 May.

Saint Aldhelm was born in Wessex in the year 639. When he was a young boy, he was sent to Canterbury to be educated under Adrian, Abbot of Saint Augustine’s, and soon impressed his teachers with his skill in studying Latin and Greek literature.

Aldhelm returned to Wessex some years later and joined the community of monks in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. He embraced the monastic life and, in 680, became the monks’ teacher. His reputation spread, and scholars from France and Scotland came to learn from him. By then, Aldhelm is said to have spoken and written fluent Latin and Greek, and was able to read the Old Testament in Hebrew. He wrote poetry, composed music and sang – King Alfred the Great placed him in the first rank of poets in the country and his ballads were popular into the 12th century. He excelled at playing many instruments, including the harp, fiddle and pipes.

Aldhelm became Abbot of Malmesbury in 683. Under his leadership, the Abbey continued to be a seat of learning and was endowed by kings and nobles. Aldhelm enlarged the monastery, and built the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Pau, and founded monasteries in Frome and Bradford-on-Avon, where he also built Saint Laurence’s Church which still stands today.

During his time as abbot, Aldhelm noticed that instead of attending to the monks at Mass, the local people preferred to spend their time gossiping and could not be persuaded to listen to the preacher. So one day, he stationed himself on a bridge, like a minstrel, and began to sing his ballads. The beauty of his verse attracted a huge crowd and, when he had caught their attention, he began to preach the Gospel.

The historian William of Malmesbury observed that if Aldhelm ‘had proceeded with severity … he would have made no impression whatever upon them.’ But by seeking out people where they were and speaking directly to them, Aldhelm had succeeded in ‘impressing on their minds a truer feeling of religious devotion.

When the Bishopric of Wessex was split into two dioceses in 705, Aldhelm was made Bishop of Sherborne. In his time as bishop, he rebuilt the church at Sherborne and helped to establish a nunnery at Wareham. He also built churches at Langton Matravers and the Royal Palace at Corfe. The headland commonly called Saint Alban’s Head in Dorset, where there is an ancient chapel, is in reality Saint Aldhelm’s Head.

Four years after his consecration, Aldhelm died at Doulting, Somerset, on 25 May 709, on his way to Malmesbury. His funeral procession travelled 50 miles from Doulting to Malmesbury and stone crosses were planted at seven-mile intervals, to mark each place where his body rested for the night.

Aldhelm was a great scholar, teacher and singer who, ‘by his preaching completed the conquest of Wessex’, according to Bede. Tradition has it that he would attract listeners by his singing and then preach the gospel to them. It seems he may have also been responsible for introducing the Rule of Saint Benedict to the area.

Saint Aldhelm depicted on a wall plaque at the Catholic Church of Saint Aldhelm, Malmesbury (Photograph: Adrian Pingstone / Wikipedia)

John 2: 13-22 (NRSVA):

13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ 18 The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ 19 Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 20 The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

A statue of Saint Aldhelm in Sherborne Abbey by Marzia Colonna (Photograph: Matt Lake / Wikipedia)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 3 March 2024, Lent III):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘International Women’s Day Reflection.’ This theme is introduced today by the Right Revd Beverley A Mason MA, Bishop of Warrington, who writes:

Read Mark 7: 24-29:

Some theologians believe that the woman is teaching the Teacher that to such as she, an ‘outsider’/Gentile/Syro-Phoenician, belongs the Kingdom of God

‘A woman with a sick daughter hears of a miracle worker. But how does she get to Him? The power differences between them are too great. He is a man in a patriarchal culture; He is a teacher, what did she know? He has status and renown, she is alone. Where is her husband, brother, father? Where was the sisterhood? He is a religious leader, but it is not her religion. Imagine the mental, physical, spiritual and social barriers she must cross. Jesus calls her a ‘dog’. At any point, she could be beaten or flee in fear or shame. Yet courageously she stays, humbles herself before Him and pleads for her child.

‘Some theologians believe the woman is teaching the Teacher that to such as her belongs the Kingdom of God. Kenneth Bailey by contrast suggests Jesus is using a clever theatrical technique, speaking the words expressed on the faces of His disciples whilst warmly encouraging the woman to press on to demonstrate that to such as this woman belongs the Kingdom of God. What do you think?

‘Clearly, we’re learning that all kinds of constructs can get in the way of us and God; that the faith, hope and love of just one woman can tear down barriers between us and Jesus – freedom, truth and healing. Just imagine the transformation by faith, hope and love when many women come together! Are you up for it?’

The USPG Prayer Diary today (3 March 2024, Lent III) invites us to pray in these words:

Spirit of God, strong as the wind
and gentle as the dove,
blow into our hearts
and fill them with your love
that we may be born anew
and know life in all its fullness.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Merciful Lord,
grant your people grace to withstand the temptations
of the world, the flesh and the devil,
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Eternal God,
give us insight
to discern your will for us,
to give up what harms us,
and to seek the perfection we are promised
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection: Saint Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury

Tomorrow: Saint Wilfrid of Ripon (709), Bishop, Missionary

Sherborne Abbey, Dorset … Saint Aldhelm was the first Bishop of Sherborne (Photograph: Joe D / Wikipedia)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org