Passion play | >Re-PHOTO

Good Friday 2nd April 2010 I went to London first for the annual procession on Victoria Street in Westminster and later for the first Passion Play to be produced in Trafalgar Square since 1965.

Crucifixion on Victoria St

Westminster

There are three major Christian churches on or around Victoria Street in Westminster, Methodist Central Hall, the Catholic Westminster Cathedral and Anglican Westminster Abbey, and for some years there has been a procession, ‘The Crucifixion on Victoria Street’ up and down the street between them.

The procession included clergy and people from other churches and organisations in the area. It was led by a large wooden cross carried by men from The Passage, a project for homeless people. Following this were around 500 people including members of The Passage, children from St Vincent de Paul Primary School, the Lord Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Duncan Sandys as well as Westminster clergy and members of various congregations.

It began outside Methodist Central Hall before making its way up Victoria St to Westminster Cathedral where on the plaza outside the cathedral it was met by the Most Reverend Vincent Nicholls, Archbishop of Westminster. He became the third Archbishop of Westminster I’ve photographed on these steps.

After hymns, a bible reading by The Reverend Philip Chester, Vicar of St Matthew’s Westminster, a mediation by the Reverend Martin Turner from Methodist Central Hall, a prayer by Mr Mick Clarke, CEO of The Passage and a reflection on peace by the Archbishop the procession went back along Victoria Street for a service in Westminster Abbey, but I left them to get out of the rain then falling steadily.

Crucifixion on Victoria St

The Passion of Jesus

Trafalgar Square

*Jesus’s body taken down from the cross*

Trafalgar Square was packed for the The Passion of Jesus, the first Passion Play there since 1965, performed by around 150 devout Christians and a donkey by a group based on the Wintershall estate in Surrey.

Property developer Peter and Ann Hutley, owners of the 1,000 acre estate and retreat centre began staging religious events after a visit to the Catholic pilgrimage centre of Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina, beginning with a Nativity event in a barn they had just bought in 1989.

They first staged ‘The Life of Christ’ on their estate in 1999, a five or six hour open air production around a lake in the grounds, with over a hundred actors as well as camels and a flock of sheep.

The ‘Passion of Jesus’ in Trafalgar Square was on a slightly reduced scale, but still very impressive and colourful, and a dramatic rendition of the traditional story from the four gospels, with some touches of added spectacle.

As I reported, “Although the flogging of Jesus occurred off-stage and the sound effects were rather unconvincing, the crucifixion that followed was a pretty gory sight.

As in the Gospel narrative, the Jewish hierarchy of the time was typecast as villains, perhaps too typecast, and the resurrection too presents some dramatic problems.”

Wintershall stages performances elsewhere – and I photographed their Staines Passion at Easter in 2014. There is another Passion of Jesus in Trafalgar Square tomorrow, Good Friday 3rd April 2026, with two free performances at 12 noon and 3:15 pm open to all. You can also watch it on Youtube if you can’t get there in person.

Many more pictures from 2010 on My London Diary: The Passion of Jesus.

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Good Friday 2010 in London – This year Easter Day is celebrated on April 17th by Western Christianity, though as usual a week later by Eastern churches. But it is a ‘moveable feast’ and is on the first Sunday after the first ‘ecclesiastical full moon’ (don’t ask) on or following 21st March, which means it will always be somewhere between March 22nd and April 25th. In 2010, Easter Day was April 4th, so April 2nd 2010 was Good Friday. I photographed two public events for it in London.

Crucifixion on Victoria St, Westminster

I photographed ‘The Crucifixion on Victoria Street’ on Good Friday for a number of years, though decided to stop doing so more recently, largely because of how I felt the behaviour of other photographers. When I first photographed the event there were relatively few of us taking pictures and we did so with some discretion, respecting the religious nature of the event. But over the years the number of photographers has increased greatly and it became more of a media circus, with a few really interfering with the proper nature of the event.

The event brings together clergy and congregations from a number of churches on and around Victoria Street, which includes the Westminster Abbey, the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathredral and Methodist Central Hall as well as other churches, church schools and projects in the area. They process along Victoria Street behind a man carrying a large wooden cross – in 2010 carried by men from the Passage, a project for homeless people close the the Cathedral – and stop for short services in front of the three main churches.

The main service was outside the entrance to Westminster Cathedral where there were hymns, bible readings, a meditation, prayers and a reflection on peace to honour the innocent victims of our times by The Most Reverend Vincent Nicholls, the third Archbishop of Westminster I’ve photographed on these steps.

I left the procession as it made its way towards Westminster Abbey where there was to be a final service.

Crucifixion on Victoria St

The Passion of Jesus, Trafalgar Square

This was the first Passion Play to be performed in the square since 1965, and was a highly professional performance by a group based on the Wintershall estate near Godalming that have been putting on similar but larger and longer ‘Life of Christ’ plays there for a number of years.

The play related key events leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, folowing the stories in the four gospels with both narration and the voices of the main characters coming to the crowd over loudspeakers around the square. It was a colourful and at times exciting rendition of what was for some of us a familiar story, but for some present was novel.

Photographing the live performance had to be from the sidelines, but I was able to do so fairly well, though mainly from longer distances than I like to work from. It was an interesting presentation of a difficult story to stage.

The pictures on My London Diary show the story in sequence and I think capture all the key moments.

The Passion of Jesus