Benedict Cumberbatch reading Dickens and Ian Hislop delivering verses from Genesis: as carol services go, The Story of Christmas is as star-studded as it gets.
Famous faces of stage and screen gathered on Wednesday night at St George’s Church in Hanover Square, Mayfair, but not just for a festive celebration. The event, which is almost 50 years old, has quietly become one of London’s biggest charity fundraisers.
It is the property industry that has made it so. As well as such performers as Celia Imrie and Dominic West, the pews were packed with London’s development and construction community who have made this fundraiser their own since it began in 1978.
The Downton Abbey actress Elizabeth McGovern
Ian Hislop, broadcaster and editor of Private Eye
Ticket sales, donations, sponsorships, and a splashy live auction all contribute to the charity coffers. Wednesday raised £1.05 million, breaking last year’s record; a winning £18,000 bid for a night on the Orient Express from Paris to Venice and two nights at the Gritti Palace hotel in the latter city certainly helped.
Among the charities being supported was Ambition Aspire Achieve, a grassroots charity in Newham, which will use the money to help develop its hub in Canning Town with a new nature garden and outdoor classroom.
The Story of Christmas will also help restore the kitchens at the Cardinal Hume Centre near Victoria, which aims to break the cycle of homelessness, and the Tim Henman Foundation, which will use funds to deliver a new games area at a primary school in Limehouse.
The Rev Roderick Leece said the object of the evening was clear: “to raise lots of money … We really do raise the roof. It’s the spirit of Christmas — we need a lot of joy at the moment and there’s a lot of joy in God choosing to be amongst us as a man.
“We’re very lucky because Dame Judi Dench was involved from the start and she’s brought people in. It helps having a name like Dame Judi to bring in some pretty starry readers.”
Westminster Cathedral choir
Guests were welcomed with a Scots Guard fanfare and the Westminster Cathedral choir sang renditions of classic hymns. Music and Bible readings were interspersed with excerpts from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, read with the elan one would expect from actors, which also included Dawn French and Elizabeth McGovern.
David Sleath, chief executive of the property company Segro, said: “Because we’re quite a capital-intensive industry, we’re trying to do things that improve the physical space: a new building, refurbishing a building, new capital equipment that leaves a lasting impact rather than day-to-day operations. Property is a close-knit community and this one night allows us to come together and raise as much money as we can in one evening.”
After a barnstorming rendition of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing the party retired to the Sheraton Park Lane’s ballroom for a festive knees-up.