Velehrad: a "spiritual refuge" for Czechs in London

Every day, Father Jan Lang leads a Czech mass in an upstairs room at the Velehrad religious, cultural and social centre on London's leafy Ladbroke Square. Velehrad has been a welcoming meeting place for young Czechs - and Slovaks - for many years and also serves as a hostel. Father Lang is in his 80s, and I asked him how long he'd been in London.

"Immediately after the War, in '45, I came to London and there was no-one else to look after the Czech congregation, so here I am, still going on."

When did you start Velehrad, when did it come into existence?

"In 1968 so many refugees came, so many new people, young people mainly from Czechoslovakia...of course then they couldn't return, couldn't go back, so naturally they looked for some place to stay and to come together to talk the situation over. And so Velehrad was such a good place where they could come and discuss and plan whatever they had."

Do you have members or is it like an "open house"?

"It's more or less an open house. It was originally meant to have proper members but we never checked and we welcome everybody, whoever comes, young...old...all sorts."

Where does the name Velehrad come from?

"Velehrad is a place in Moravia where Saints Cyril and Methodius started their mission, called by Rostislav to come as missionaries, well they started in Velehrad. And that's why we thought it very telling and expressing what it really should be - a spiritual refuge for our people."