The work of Pipe Up and its co-founder Martin Renshaw was featured in a “Songs of Praise” programme broadcast on BBC1 on Sunday 24th September 2023.
Singer Katherine Jenkins presented the programme about the role of the pipe organ in religion. She interviewed celebrity organist Anna Lapwood at Pembroke College, Cambridge, gave a short history of organ music in Christianity and how she used the organ to accompany service. Later, Pam Rhodes interviewed Martin and others as he visited a number of organs in London.
One of them was our beloved “Henry” at London Bridge, rescued by Martin from a closed church in Whetstone in north London in 2021 and installed at the station in 2022.
The second was an a Nelson organ rescued by Martin from County Durham and installed in a Seventh-Day Adventist church in Clapton, east London where it is much used by 11 teenage local organ students. Fiona Pacquette was interviewed about the value of the organ in its new home. This project featured in James Dawson’s film “Organ Stops".
The third visit is to a fine but barely-playable 1920s organ in a now-closed Swedenborgian “New” church in Notting Hill. Its new owner is planning its conversion to a Greek Orthodox Church, but without the organ. Sadly the outlook for this organ is still unclear.
Each of the interviewees chose a hymn, and the programme closed with a performance of the hymn “Be Still“ by Katherine and Aled Jones at Westminster Abbey.
The programme is available for a limited time on the BBC iPlayer at:
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