IT IS SAD that the plan for turning Archer's bombed
Church of St. John's in Smith Square into a concert hall seems to have fallen through. It has been rejected by the London Diocesan Fund. However, Sir Hamilton Kerr, MP, Lord Esher and others are determined that some use for it should be found, if not as a concert hall. as a museum for travelling exhibitions like the recently reopened Orangerie in Paris. Such a museum would presumably come into the control of the Tate, and this seems to be an almost ideal solu- tion. The difficulty is that the Church authorities naturally want to get as much for the site as they can, and they would obviously get more for it if St. John's were demolished and a block of offices built on the site than they would if it were restored and turned into a concert hall or a museum. While that is a perfectly legitimate atti- tude for the authorities to take, it would be a pity if St. John's, a fine piece of baroque, was lost, and I hope that they will not be too greedy in their demands, especially as the church was originally built out of public funds.
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