Brian Simpson fills us in on another successful St Paul’s Summer Fete.
St Paul’s Church’s Summer Fete returned to St Paul’s Square on Saturday 15 August, drawing residents and visitors alike from across the Jewellery Quarter for an afternoon of stalls, entertainment and neighbourly goodwill.
The JQ Artisan Market anchored the day, bringing independent makers and traders into the square alongside the church’s own stalls; a reminder of how naturally St Paul’s Square lends itself to exactly this kind of gathering. Elsewhere on site, the Kangs Summer Pavilion hosted pottery painting by the Glaze Room and graphology readings by the Pen Museum, Cuddle Paws ran a popular dog agility course, and younger visitors queued for the bouncy castle and Teddy Bear Picnic. Progress Music Academy provided live music through the afternoon, and church tours gave many their first proper look inside the building – the only Grade I listed building in the Jewellery Quarter, standing on the square since 1779.
None of it happens without support. Kangs Solicitors returned as principal sponsor, OTD came on board again this year, as did the JQBID in kind, between them anchoring the funding and support that makes a day like this possible. Trentina kept the square fed and The Jam House ran the bar.
What stood out most, though, wasn’t any single stall or sponsor – it was the square itself. Stallholders, visitors, JQ residents and passers-by who’d simply followed the noise all ended up in the same place for a few hours, with no reason to be there beyond the day itself. That’s not something a marketing plan manufactures; it’s what happens when a neighbourhood still has a genuine centre to gather in.
Proceeds from the day support the Raise the Roof, the St Paul’s ongoing £800,000 campaign to replace the roof last renewed shortly after the Second World War. A final fundraising total will follow once the books are reconciled – but every stall, every raffle ticket and every conversation on the day keeps the campaign, and the building, visibly part of the Quarter’s life rather than a closed-door restoration project.
Thank you to everyone who ran a stall, sponsored the day, volunteered, or simply came along. St Paul’s Square will be doing this again next August – and JQDT members are always welcome, fete day or otherwise.
