SUNDAY IN LONDON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 40037, 10 December 1929, Page 4

SUNDAY IN LONDON.

THE CONTINENTAL CUSTOM. EALING’S ''BRIGHT EXCEPTION

Li the view of Mr. H. H. Martin, secretary of the Lord’s Day Observation (Society, Ealing, is the “best 'Sabbath-loving sufburb in London,” while Bristol, Newcastle, and Plymouth aire the most praisew onthy among provincial cities. “In Ealing,” said Mr. Martin recently, “there are no Sunday games in the parks, no Sunday cinemas and no dance halls flouting .the Divine commandments. Wimbledon, Croydon, Ilford, and Barnet, also cotne out well from the .Sabbath point of view, but Ealing i& an easy first. ,

' “The worst Sabbath-desecrating area in London is Lambeth. There Sunday trading is rampant, cinemas ar copen, and games are played in -the public open spaces. Rowland Hill’s old chapel in Blackfriar’s Road is the scene every* Sabbath afternoon of ghastly prize-fights, which are attended by huge crowds, who watch men better pne another for money prizes. Sometim.es purses as high as £4OO are offered. Church attendance in the district, is appalling'. “Richmond has, in our opinion, a Continental Sunday, as opposed, to wha.t we would call the English 'Sunday. Tottenham is steeped in' secularism .and Sabbath desecration, and Notting Hill, with its Sunday trading and Sunday street market is turning the Lord’s Day into a day of merchandise.”

“London’s Sunday,” Mr. Martin continued, “is becoming C'ontinentalised by the forces of - commercialism, but, spealldng generally, attempts to 'break down the distinct character of the English Sunday almost invariably arouse storms of opposition in the towns and cities of the provinces. The opposition to the Sunday opening of cinemas is so strong in the provinces ■ that sixty-nine of the leading towns and cities have refused to allow Sunday cinemas opening on any condition whatever.

“Bristol ii probably the most Sabbath-observing city in the provinces. There the people have a quiet, reverent, English Sunday, and the religious forces are a real power. The same can be said of Newcastle and Plymouth. “Brighton is on the slippery slope so far as Sabbath observance is concerned. 'Southend also is had. From Southend 'Pier to the Kursaal —almost a mile of front —on Sunday morning there is an almost indescribable bable of voices and pandemonium, caused by Sunday trading of all kinds. “Blackpool, with its whirligig of Sunday pleasure and amusements, is regarded by many of its best townspeople to merit the tern ‘Black’ Blackpool.”