Lawrence Wallington

Lawrence Wallington has lived in Lewisham for thirty-five years. He started volunteering for us this year as tree auditor and has now become area rep in Rushey Green.

Throughout his life - he has just turned sixty - Lawrence played the flute or spent his time singing. He started the flute as a child and took up singing at university. Lawrence has no intention of stopping now, even though he recently retired from his singing job as “lay vicar” at Westminster Abbey after over forty years.

Lawrence explains to me that “lay vicar” is not a religious post. It refers to his long membership of the abbey choir as a bass-baritone. He has loved being part of the big state occasions of the last four decades, remembering particularly the funerals of Lord Mountbatten in 1979 and Princess Diana in 1997, and William and Kate's wedding more recently. But through his long-term work for The Monteverdi and other specialist choirs, he has loved combining the Abbey’s pageantry and ritual with, for example, singing for the Star Wars soundtrack in Abbey Road studios, and touring the world. “What’s most exciting for me is that these choirs bring together seasoned and exciting young singers. We work together across the generations with the simple aim of making the best possible music.”

Looking ahead, Lawrence noticed that Covid has forced music to become, sometimes, more local. Certainly Lawrence himself, through his latest venture Opera That’s Nice! is delivering opera on doorsteps, at picnics and in private homes. Lawrence is delighted that some listeners have admitted to “having always been scared of opera but find it’s actually great.”

Regarding his own singing “I don’t feel I’ve hung up my voice yet. I’d like to go for some big father-figure roles in Verdi, perhaps Germont in Traviata, or Macbeth.” We wish him luck.