The Westminster Meeting House is a

Friends meeting house A Friends meeting house is a meeting house of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), where meeting for worship is usually held. Typically, Friends meeting houses are simple and resemble local residential buildings. Steeples, spires, and ...

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

place of worship) at 52

St Martin's Lane St Martin's Lane is a street in the City of Westminster, which runs from the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, after which it is named, near Trafalgar Square northwards to Long Acre. At its northern end, it becomes Monmouth Street. St Martin ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, London WC1. It shares its frontage with an adjoining shop. The Westminster friends have been meeting at this location since 1883. The philosopher

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

and the activist

Alys Pearsall Smith Alyssa Whitall "Alys" Pearsall Smith (21 July 1867 – 22 January 1951) was an American-born British Quaker relief organiser and the first wife of Bertrand Russell. She chaired the society that created an innovative school for mothers in 1907. ...

married in the meeting house in 1894. In Russell's autobiography he relates that the guests at the wedding seemed moved to preach about the Miracle at Cana which offended his bride's

teetotal Teetotalism is the practice or promotion of total personal abstinence from the psychoactive drug alcohol, specifically in alcoholic drinks. A person who practices (and possibly advocates) teetotalism is called a teetotaler or teetotaller, or is ...

sensibility. The artist Richard Morris Smith made a drawing of their wedding and a photograph of the drawing was donated to the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: *National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra *National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...

by Barbara Halpern in 1999.National Portrait Gallery
'A Quaker wedding' (The marriage of Bertrand Russell and Alys Pearsall Smith) , National Portrait Gallery
accessdate: July 8, 2017 The writer and activist Jennifer Kavanagh has been a member of the Westminster Quaker meeting since 1996.Jennifer Kavanagh
Quaker Jennifer Kavanagh, Jennifer Kavanagh
accessdate: July 8, 2017 The meeting house and adjoining shop is listed Grade II on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

. The meeting for worship is held on Sundays from 11am to 12pm; on Tuesdays from 1 to 1:30pm and on Wednesdays from 6:15 to 7pm.

References

External links

* {{coord, 51.51077, N, 0.12684, W, type:landmark_region:GB-WSM, display=title 1883 establishments in England 19th-century Quaker meeting houses Grade II listed places of worship in the City of Westminster Grade II listed houses Grade II listed religious buildings and structures Quaker meeting houses in London