Steve Harmston
Grimaldi service
1st February 2015.
All Saints Church, Haggerston, London.
The annual service in which around 30 clowns, dressed in full costume, gather to honour the king of the clowns, Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837). The clowns’ service has been held in London since 1947, originally at St James’s on Pentonville Road, where Grimaldi is buried, until the church was gutted by fire in 1959. Children get to participate in one of the more moving parts of the day, when they carry a candle for each of the clowns who had laughed their last in the past year.
Grimaldi service
1st February 2015.
All Saints Church, Haggerston, London.
The annual service in which around 30 clowns, dressed in full costume, gather to honour the king of the clowns, Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837). The clowns’ service has been held in London since 1947, originally at St James’s on Pentonville Road, where Grimaldi is buried, until the church was gutted by fire in 1959. Children get to participate in one of the more moving parts of the day, when they carry a candle for each of the clowns who had laughed their last in the past year.