by Can Giles Goddard published on the Vicar’s Blog on St John’s Waterloo’s website Dear all, As many of you know, 3rd June is the day when the Martyrs of Uganda are remembered. It’s a big day for members of Okusinza Church, and I have been honoured to be part of the Okusinza service of […]

  MyLondonHome is delighted to be sponsoring this year’s Waterloo Festival at St John’s Waterloo.       For many years, MyLondonHome has worked in and around Waterloo, helping people buy and sell their homes, and in 2020, we finally opened our first Waterloo branch on Lower Marsh. We couldn’t be happier to be supporting […]

  Coin Street have been funded by Illuminated River Foundation’s Community Fund to develop and deliver art workshops for young people aged 9+ for the local community. At Waterloo Festival, we are thrilled to be offering a weekly platform from which to showcase and share the work more widely!             […]

  I’ve read and watched hundreds of supernatural, ghostly and dark tales. There are a memorable few that occupy a special place in my affections and have in various ways influenced my own writing.           Shirley Jackson can do no wrong as far as I’m concerned. Her work ranges from malevolent […]

  Waterloo Festival thrives on creative partnerships, on bringing professionals from the world of arts and music to collaborate with and showcase their wonderful work to our communities in Waterloo, Lambeth and – thanks to the marvels of the internet – elsewhere. In this series, we meet some of our creative partners for 2020. Next […]

  Josh Mock is a cellist, composer, and conductor currently studying Arabic and Farsi at SOAS, University of London, where he is the LGBTQIA+ officer elect for 2020-2021. You can find his work on his website, SoundCloud, and on YouTube.       Art has always been a vehicle for protest, dialogue, and activism. It’s […]

  For Pride Saturday, we’ve asked the supporters of and the teams behind Waterloo Festival and St John’s Waterloo to put together this blogpost, featuring works by LGBTQIA+ artists which is dear and inspirational to them.               Back in 2017, while catching up at one of our favourite haunts […]

  Euchar Gravina   Artistic Director           Sunset is setting at Waterloo Festival 2020. Photo: Thames River from Waterloo Bridge.       What an interesting, exciting and often very nerve wracking time these last few months have been! We’re very proud to have brought to you and our local community […]

  by Erin Quigley       ‘Return to Waterloo’ (1984), Ray Davies of ‘The Kinks’ departure into directing, establishes itself as a musical drama that questions the thoughts of a seemingly average commuter (Ken Colley) on his daily, mundane train journey from Guildford to Waterloo. The 58-minute film centres around the astutely unnamed protagonist’s […]

We’re now exploring the Churchyard at St John’s Waterloo, its history, its plants and its kind carers. Jonathan Trustram, from the Churchyard, writes about two of the plants. Our campsis (C. radicans) is the most long-suffering plant in the churchyard. It grows by the railings against Waterloo Road, near the cork oak. It would like […]

Waterloo Festival thrives on creative partnerships, on bringing artists and musicians to collaborate with and showcase their wonderful work to our communities in Waterloo, Lambeth and – thanks to the marvels of the internet – elsewhere. In this series, we meet some of our creative partners for 2020. This week, in the run-up to World […]

  Follow us on Instagram – we’ve invited our creative partners Art4Minds to take over our platform for the duration of Mental Health Awareness Week.       For help and wellbeing advice, you can visit our dedicated page here.                            

  by Shanon Shah           In this third and final part of our interview with Stephen Kafeero, he and Shanon Shah explore the challenges in balancing multiple identities as migrants in contemporary London. This discussion brings them to the profound way that Okusinza mu Luganda ties together the strands of prayer, […]

  by Shanon Shah           Stephen Kafeero (courtesy of Stephen Kafeero)       Our three-part interview with Stephen Kafeero closes our special series to support the 30th anniversary celebrations of Okusinza mu Luganda (Worship in Luganda) at St John’s Waterloo. Stephen is a behind-the-scenes wizard at the monthly Okusinza services […]

  Giles Goddard, Honorary Treasurer of the South Bank and Waterloo Neighbours (SOWN) and vicar at St John’s Waterloo, tells us more about the story and the function of this vital local group.           What is it?       You might have heard talk of SOWN and wondered what it […]

  Sarah Witt is the artist behind @Switt_Art, and has used lockdown to paint everyday to keep her distracted from the unexpected twists and turns of life at the moment. Sarah also works as the Sales and Events coordinator at Coin Street, a social enterprise based in Waterloo.       Growing up I always […]

  “The system’s not failing us, the system wasn’t built for us in the first place”, says Daniel Gregory, aka DJ Switch, of The Last Word podcast.               The current affairs podcast hosted by Daniel alongside his friends Andria, Mr Alize, Stina, Maxie and Shell, started as “a group […]

  by Shanon Shah       As a gay man from Malaysia, I often feel conflicted when Malaysia makes the headlines, especially on gender or sexuality. It pains me that there is still so much homophobia and transphobia there but, at the same time, it is deeply frustrating when the news reports – especially […]

  On the last day of the online edition of Waterloo Festival 2020, here’s a proposition from our creative partners, Art4Minds.                          

With Coin Street Community Builders‘ Over 50s Art Group, we were planning a very ambitious art-installation in the Churchyard of St John’s. The severity of this pandemic encouraged us to change our approach. Through this series, we present the artists involved and their work. We meet next Carlos Camacho. I was born in Colombia and […]

  Over the course of a series of features and blogposts, Flux Soup are presenting Waterloo at Home; a sensory journey through a Waterloo micro World. We kicked off with call out , followed up with fanatical botanicals (check this out here too) and moved on to cocktails! And here’s a follow-up on mixing drinks… […]

  Hart Club designed the ‘Respair’ logo for the Waterloo Festival site. This word, ‘respair’, seems very appropriate for our current moment – after a year of tragedy and adversity for so many people, touch wood, we are finally re-emerging from our foxholes.           It has not been all bad – […]

  Through this series, we explore creative reactions to the recent events in the US and the UK and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. First up, Shirina Carstens.   My name is Shirina Carstens I am a mentor and speaker. I’m passionate about wellbeing and making sure we are operating in the best versions of ourselves. This […]

  Our final newsletter about Waterloo Festival 2020 is out! It’s not a goodbye – we have lots of projects which will come to life in the coming weeks and months. You can subscribe for updates from us and St John’s by filling the form below (at the end of the page) or clicking here. […]