A Taste of Finland in London

The Surrey docks in Rotherhithe, before they closed down, were a principal centre for the import of timber from Canada and the Scandinavian countries. To cater for shore leave for sailors from Nordic lands, missions and churches were set up. Thus, there is, within a small area of London, a Norwegian church, a Swedish chapel (unfortunately closed in 2012 but now listed as a fine example of post-war Scandinavian architecture and safe from demolition) and a Finnish church. (Further afield there is also a Danish and a Swedish church).

The Finnish Lutheran building was designed by the great Helsinki architect Cyrill Mardall-Sjostrom (1909-1994). It dates from 1958 and is listed as a fine example of the superb modern architecture Finns produce. The church has an unusual bell-tower and the apse is of serene beauty, faced by grey rock slabs from Finland.

 

There has been a Finnish mission in London since 1882 to give assistance, shelter and social life to seamen from that country. Now that the docks have closed the chances of coming face-to-face with a Finnish seaman in Rotherhithe are somewhat slim. However, today the church serves as a social centre for all Finns; it has a shop selling Finnish food items and includes hostel accommodation.

Quite by chance we found ourselves a couple of days ago in the middle of a Finnish Christmas market which spilled out on the streets in front of the church.

Closing the street of the Christmas market was the distinctive spire of the Norwegian church, inaugurated by the future king Haakon VII in 1927 and a centre of the Norwegian government in exile during the dark years of the war.

 

The atmosphere was most congenial and there was even a lady playing Finnish folk songs.

 

As always with London it’s possible to travel the world for the price of a bus ticket and for a couple of hours we were in Finland, especially when attempting to decipher what all those weirdly named food products being sold turned out to be. At least we now know that limpuu, reikaleipa and hapankorppu are all delicious types of dark rye bread (a staple diet among Finns it seems) and that ligonberries and cloudberries abound together with reindeer meat and moose, not to leave out the Plevnan Siperia Imperial stout!