Would you like to welcome walkers and cyclists to your place of worship or practice on Saturday 14 September?  Londoners will be finding sponsorship to visit as many as possible, with the proceeds split 50-50 between their own choice of local church, mosque, temple or other community and the Heritage for London Trust.

Sadly, the date chosen clashes with the solemn day of Yom Kippur, so Jewish friends and synagogues are unlikely to be participating.  Let’s hope significant days and dates are avoided next year.  The BBC website has a good calendar for checking dates up to two years in advance.

See whether your borough’s religious buildings are part of Ride+Stride on the HfLT website, which has a handy map.  Wesley’s Chapel, the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, the Swedish Church, the Royal Foundation of St Katharine, Wandsworth Quaker Meeting House and St Paul’s Cathedral are already signed up.

Lambeth Council has integrated Ride + Stride into its Lambeth Heritage Festival.  

HfLT’s Alice Knight is happy to sign up new participants – she has some A2 posters to use as publicity which are free of charge.  On the day, someone needs to welcome walkers and cyclists, tell them something about the heritage and sign their sponsorship forms.  Juice and biscuits is an extra treat but not essential.  Download the form and return it to Alice asap at contact@heritageoflondon.com.

“Get on your bikes or put your best foot forward to raise much needed funds for London’s places of worship!

Ride+Stride is a sponsored walk and cycle around religious buildings of all faiths and eras.

The less energetic can also take part as many of these buildings are on major public transport routes.

Participants are free to choose whatever route and distance suits them.

The funds raised will be split equally between the participant’s nominated place of worship and the Heritage of London Trust, who will then give it out in grants.”

In future, this scheme could link in with the Open University’s Building on History initiative, which Finchley and Wandsworth are pioneering.

Many thanks to Jason Cobb for alerting LBFN to Ride + Stride.