Amen Court and Amen Corner
A little known corner of London
(Photos/words © urban75, 10th February, 2007)

Amen Corner is now a very short stub of a road flanked by ugly modern offices, but it leads to Amen Court containing the late seventeenth century houses of canons from the nearby St Paul's cathedral.

Amen Court is a short distance from Paternoster Row, where monks finished their Pater Noster (a Christian prayer) on Corpus Christi Day before walking in procession to St. Paul's Cathedral.

The ritual started at Paternoster Row, with the monks reciting the Lord's prayer in Latin to the end of the street. When they reached the corner or bottom of the Row they said 'Amen'.

They then turned down Ave-Maria Lane chanting "Hail, Mary!" before crossing Ludgate, where they chanted the Credo. A bit like football fans on the move, then.


In January 1958, John Collins, the canon of St Paul's, started the the Campaign for Nuclear Disamament (CND) from his flat in Amen Court.


It's an unusual street that looks like it should lead somewhere, but there's a modern development blocking the far end.


This big sign meant I trod no further!


Original ironwork surrounding the house entrance.

Other Amen Corners

'Amen Court' became well known in the late 1960s after Andy Fairweather-Low's R&B band of the same name.

Hailing from south Wales (huzzah!), the band's biggest hit was '(If Paradise Is) Half As Nice,' which reached Number One in 1969.

A meeting place in the old Fifth Avenue Hotel, Madison Square, New York was also known as 'Amen Corner' in 1897, it's also a play by James Baldwin, a road junction in Tooting, London, a cul de sac near Dudley and the name of some tricky water holes at Augusta National Golf Club in the US.

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