The German School

Petersham Road, Petersham

In 1968, proposals to build a school where children of German nationals living in London could be educated had almost foundered; the then West German government could not afford to buy a suitable site in London. The matter, however, was taken up by Jürgen Sudhoff, a young diplomat in the London Embassy who was anxious to make his mark, and he eventually carried Bonn with him. A competition among German architects was staged, a winner chosen and plans drawn up. Thereafter, complications began. The German Embassy in London asked a German architect called Marmorek, who had worked for them, to take charge. Because his was a small partnership, he asked for the assistance of a local firm which could administer the site and steer the enterprise through the local planning process. The Culpin practice was chosen. The building was begun in 1978 and completed in 1980. There was much local opposition to the size of the building and to the placing of a school in this quiet neighbourhood.

All's well that ends well: the finished building has a spacious main hall which allows both the musical and social activities of the Concert Society to take place within one continuous space. The overall structure is notable for its steel spaceframe roof - about 4,500 square metres of it - a system which allows very large areas to be covered without support from the ground. The hall is particularly useful for piano recitals and performances by larger chamber groups.

St Margaret's Catholic Church

St Margaret's Road, East Twickenham

This church is named for St Margaret, Queen of Scotland (1046-93), who was married to King Malcolm III. Among her many other virtues, she was a cultivated and educated woman (Malcolm himself could not read) who encouraged the arts and education.

The parish was initiated in 1930 as an offshoot of St Bridget's, Isleworth, and its first administrators were Mill Hill Missionaries. It was formally constituted as a parish in 1935 and, between then and the 1960s, when it became possible to finance the construction of a new church, Mass was said in a hut on the site. The church we know today was consecrated in 1969. English Heritage, impressed by its innovative design and use of materials, has designated it a Grade II Listed building. The design of the interior reflects the link between the liturgical services and the socially supportive side of church life, which means that, as at the German School, the Richmond Concert Society can conduct the musical and social aspects of its concerts here within a single unified space.

St Mary's Church

Riverside, Twickenham

St Mary's has a medieval tower of Kentish ragstone and a Georgian brick nave, the latter built by John James of Greenwich in 1713, when the original, chronically neglected nave fell down. The rebuilding was initiated by one of the churchwardens, the court painter Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723).

Among local notables commemorated in the church is the poet Alexander Pope. A brass tablet in the floor near the front row of pews marks the approximate location of his interment. His parents are celebrated by an elaborate memorial in the north gallery, while a tablet on the east wall (outside) touchingly records his gratitude to "a faithful old servant", his nurse, Mary Beach. During the 1720s the tea and coffee merchant Thomas Twining built Dial House behind the church; in 1890 the Twining family gave the house to the parish and it became the vicarage.

The church has a ring of eight bells, the oldest dating from before the Reformation. These are regularly rung, although we perhaps cannot expect a repeat of the event in 1749 when the Society of Twickenham Scholars rang "a complete peal of 6,000 changes". Less clangorously, the Society uses St Mary's for its string quartet concerts whenever possible and the church's acoustic has been highly praised by the quartets who have played here.