A concert last night in the Lovekyn Chapel, Kingston-upon-Thames (south-west London), featuring William Summers (my brother) on recorder and flute, Jennifer Bennett on violin and viol, and Yair Avidor on lute and theorbo. Avidor played some solo lute music, including extracts from John Dowland’s A Varietie of Lute-lessons, published in 1610 (only a few years after Campion and Rosseter’s Book of Ayres – see previous post). What was remarkable was that the building the concert took place in, the Lovekyn Chapel, was already about 250 years old when Dowland’s Lute-lessons were published.
A plaque on the outside of the Chapel provides some historical detail:
“The Lovekyn Chantry Chapel founded 1309 by Edward Lovekyn bailiff and member of the Butchers’ Company of Kingston. Rebuilt and Re-endowed 1352 by John Lovekyn stock-fishmonger and alderman and four times Lord Mayor of London. Confiscated to the Crown 1535, granted to the Kingston Grammar School 1561 by Queen Elizabeth”
This plaque was mounted before 1952, as up until that point there had only ever been one Queen Elizabeth in English history: the First, reigning 1558–1603. As you probably know, Elizabeth 1st presided over a golden age of literature and music, to which Dowland made a significant contribution (despite spending much time abroad).
Avidor coaxed Dowland’s snaking melodies out of his lute, in a chapel that still belongs to the school to which Elizabeth gave it. We listened, enchanted, while traffic roared down the A308, just outside the chapel walls.
