Pope Mobile

Venue: Lambeth Palace (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambeth_Palace)
Oyster: Lambeth North


There’s nothing like a good old gawk at the Pope on a Friday afternoon… The last time England was graced with a Papal visit I was minus seven, so I didn’t want to miss this one. Who knows when it could happen again? Plus – crucially – it was free. The crowd began to gather about an hour before the great man’s appearance – an hour of suspenseful build-up which ended rather anti-climatically. We swarmed up to the protective barrier, tried to identify which exit of Lambeth Palace the sacred Popemobile would emerge from, stared out the line of solemn-faced policeman and eventually – out of boredom – started filming each other -

It soon became clear that my vague curiosity bordering on indifference jarred heavily against the polar enthusiasms of everyone around me. I found myself amidst supportive Catholics, abusive Catholics, opinionated protestors and desperate-for-a-story journalists. Of course I had been following the negative vibes that had been pumped through the media all week – it was hard to avoid them. I had even provoked several debates about the issue. But despite my clearly expert knowledge on the controversy surrounding the Holy Man, for some reason I really wasn’t expecting so many angry people to turn up. But the signs appeared –

the people shouted and everyone was generally quite incensed. One troublesome tramp-like young man was even frisked by half a dozen police officers just a few rows away. His muffled response - ‘I am being searched against my human rights’ – was largely ignored.

Meanwhile, a journalist received an unexpected scoop behind me as a protester told his shocking story – six siblings, all devout Catholics, all abused by priests.

I suddenly panicked at the likelihood that I would end up witnessing an assassination that day (or an attempted one – that Popemobile glass looks pretty assassination-proof.)  I even started squinting around at the various buildings for possible sniper activity…

My slowly forming plans for an early exit to avoid said assassination possibility were dashed as a stream of grey-haired, enrobed elderly men came out of the palace and bizarrely boarded coaches. There were many cries of ‘which one’s the pope?’ But I was less naïve  - I knew the Pope had a much more stylish way to travel than in a bog-standard coach. And a few minutes later-

If I’m honest, the real reason I journeyed over to Lambeth Palace that Friday was to see the glory of the Popemobile in the metal. And it was fabulous.

After that short blur of thirty-second pope love, he was gone. Anti-climatic certainly, no assassination attempts thankfully and I shall be looking into getting one of those awesome Popemobile beasts for myself.