Things Yes campaign is doing right now

Saying Yes to preserving our building

Each year we welcome one million people through our doors. They come to be part of an institution that has always been a centre of ideas – from London’s first free lending library to the site of the first religious broadcast.

For over three centuries, St Martin-in-the-Fields has been a sanctuary for those in need, a champion of social justice, and a source of inspiration through its choral excellence and inclusive faith. 

Yet, time has taken its toll—its historic spaces are worn, its facilities overstretched, and its capacity to serve an ever-growing community increasingly strained. With over a million visitors each year and a world facing new challenges, the moment to secure St Martin’s future is now.

The first phase of the Yes Campaign is focusing on our most pressing need – preserving our Grade 1 listed building for future generations by repairing severe leaks, preventing water damage and restoring its historic stonework.

Saying Yes to Music

Music weaves through almost everything we do at St Martin’s. From free Great Sacred Music sequences every Thursday lunchtime to international renowned musicians at evening concerts.

The Trust supports the St Martin's Voices, Voluntary Music at St Martin's and various Artist Development Programmes, suppporting emerging and leading music professionals. 

Our professional choir, St Martin’s Voices, continues to thrive, expanding its in-person and online audience. We've also collaborated with renowned ensembles and expanded our presence on Classic FM, as well as BBC Radio 3 and 4. St Martin’s Voices is now a key part of the Church of England’s online worship programme.

Music at St Martin-in-the-Fields is facing challenges, yet it remains a vital part of our mission to inspire and uplift. Your support can help preserve this cherished tradition.

Creating a space for women

18 Keys is the new South London space offered by St. Martin’s for women experiencing homelessness. At present, the space offers 15 studio apartments; when renovation works are complete this autumn, that will grow to 18 studios, with a large community room, a therapy suite, and a garden.

18 Keys is far more than a hostel; it’s a high-support space that recognises that transitioning out of a life on the streets takes time and intensive support.

18 Keys recognises the importance of questions such as “what do you think would help you?” and, “what are your hopes and ideas and longings for your life?” From the outset, women are empowered to find their own path to their personal potential and capacity. They embark, from the start, on living their own true lives.

The programme’s activities—the cooking, gardening, meditation, yoga, and therapy, to name a few, that women can participate in at the centre—are not just leisure pursuits. They help the women to enter into a way of being that might be highly unfamiliar after the high-alert survival state of life on the streets. 

This transition takes time, and at 18 Keys, women are given just that. They stay for anywhere from a few months to more than a year—and when they leave, care continues. The team works with residents and local authorities to find stable step-down accommodation, seeking the best options from all available arenas, from social housing to private tenancies. And when they’re in their own move-on accommodation, the women have up to three months of continued support from 18 Keys, during which time, they are linked to services in their new community that meet their specific needs. They also leave with new skills: they may have attended university or a vocational course such as tiling or horticulture. Together, these experiences lay the groundwork for a new beginning.

Find out more here 

Children’s Plinth

There are few places in the country where you get to see so much of life – in all its noise and colour and art and chaos and joy and struggle and pomp and realness – as Trafalgar Square.

To be the church and steps and meeting point and cafe and ever-open-door for all this life is both an honour and a responsibility.

The charities and cultural activities that share ground – physically and philosophically – at St Martin’s all have one thing in common, a drive to be with the world in its beautiful and not-so beautiful moments.

Of course, this is what the art on the fourth plinth has always done too.

And now our fifth plinth joins the fray – telling the stories and sharing the perspectives about all that life from the unique minds of the younger people in London.

We are delighted to work in partnership with the Mayor of London and so grateful for the support of Sir Robert McAlpine.