Summer greetings from RBCS!
RBCS is a friendly non-audition mixed-voice amateur community choir based in Rotherhithe, Southwark, south-east London.
Our aim is to practise and perform good music to suit a variety of tastes, and have a good time in the process.
Rehearsal time: 8.00–9.45 pm every Tuesday during term-time.
Summer term 2025 begins on Tuesday 3 June. We’ll be singing a seasonal selection of madrigals, folk songs and other part songs, for our Summer Concert concert on 19 July. 5.30pm at St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe.
Rehearsal venue: St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe, Saint Marychurch St, London SE16 4HZ (subject to occasional change – please check your choir emails for up-to-date information).
New members are always welcome for all voice parts. If you enjoy singing and are interested in joining us, please contact us, or just come along to the next rehearsal. See our Join us page for details of membership.
REPERTOIRE 2024–2025
Summer term 2025, beginning Tuesday 3 June
- Madrigals, folk songs and other part songs for our Summer Concert on Saturday 19 July, 5.30pm at St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe.
Spring term 2025, beginning Tuesday 11 February
- John Rutter’s Requiem plus a selection of motets by Brahms, Bruckner and Franck for our Spring Concert on Saturday 17 May at St James’s Church, Bermondsey.
Autumn/winter term 2024 (17 September – 17 December)
- JS Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (excerpts) and John Rutter’s Jesus Child, plus carols from around the world – for our Christmas Concert on Saturday 21 December at St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
After months of Zoom meetings, it was a great relief to get back to in-person rehearsals. But as an intergenerational choir, we’re conscious that we still need to be especially careful to keep everybody safe. Choir members are encouraged to take extra precautions during the flu season.
NEWS
- CHRISTMAS PAST (AND CHRISTMAS FUTURE?)
Here’s a (pre-Covid) video of RBCS singing carols under the tree in Trafalgar Square – courtesy of France 3 TV News.
We’re hoping to be back in Trafalgar Square this year!
PAST EVENTS
- SUMMER CONCERT 2024
Music for the Theatre
Saturday 13 July 2024
St James’s Church Bermondsey - SPRING CONCERT 2024
Mozart’s Requiem
Saturday 23 March
St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe
- WINTER CONCERT 2023
Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mid-Winter by Bob Chilcott, and a selection of carols and Christmas music
Saturday 16 November
St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe - SUMMER CONCERT 2023
Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo by Joseph Horovitz and Michael Flanders, plus madrigals
and partsongs
Saturday 8 July
St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe. - SPRING CONCERT 2023
Duruflé, Requiem and JS Bach, Jesu meine Freude
Saturday 1 April
St James’s Church, Bermondsey - WINTER CONCERT 2022
Seasonal music with a difference – including Gustav Holst’s Christmas Day (choral fantasy on old carols) and Alexander L’Estrange’s folk-inspired Wassail
Saturday 13 November
St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe
- SUMMER CONCERT 2022
The Making of the Drum by Bob Chilcott (‘A contemporary hero of British choral music’, The Observer) plus songs to celebrate local hero Ada Salter, London’s first woman mayor.
Saturday 16 July
St James’s Church Bermondsey - SPRING CONCERT 2022
Haydn’s Nelson Mass (Missa in Angustiis, 1798)
Saturday 9 April
St James’s Church, Bermondsey - WINTER CONCERT 2021
Clive Jenkins’ Mayflower Pilgrims cantata
Saturday 13 November
St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe
- CHRISTMAS CAROL CONCERT 2021
Saturday 18 December
St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe, SE16 4JE
- SPRING CONCERT 2020 (CANCELLED OWING TO COVID)
Requiems by Maurice Duruflé and John Rutter
4 April 2020 - CHRISTMAS CONCERT 2019
Benjamin Britten, Ceremony of Carols
14 December - Southwark Park 150 Year Anniversary
16 July 2019
Southwark Park
- SPRING CONCERT 2019
Brahms, A German Requiem
13 April
St James’ Church, Bermondsey
- CHRISTMAS CONCERT 2018
Alexander L’Estrange, Wassail! Carols of Comfort and Joy
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Messe de Minuit de Noël
15 December
St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe, - SUMMER CONCERT 2018
Songs from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story,
and more
14 July
St. Peter’s Church, Bermondsey,
Paradise Street, SE16 4QD
- Pictures from our Spring 2018 performance
- SPRING CONCERT 2018
JS Bach, St John Passion
with RBCS Chamber Orchestra
Saturday 14 April
St James’s Church, Bermondsey - CAROL SINGING ROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE
in Trafalgar Square
Thursday 21 December 2017, 7–8pm. - WINTER CONCERT 2017
Seasonal music including Francis Poulenc’s Christmas Motets
(Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël)
Saturday 2 December
St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe - ILLUMINATE ROTHERHITHE 2017
On 23 November, members of RBCS took part in the Mayflower Concert at St Mary’s Church – part of the inaugural Illuminate Rotherhithe festival.
Click on the image below to watch a video of the concert.
- SUMMER CONCERT 2017
Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana and music from mediaeval Europe
RBCS Community Choir
directed by Sue Heath-Downey
plus the wonderful Boutcher Primary School Choir
with soloists Kirsty McLean (soprano) and Panos Ntourntoufis (tenor)
accompanied by percussion and two pianos
TIME: Saturday 8 July 2017, 7.30
PLACE: St Peter and the Guardian Angels Church,
Paradise Street, SE16 4QD
(off King’s Stairs Gardens, near The Angel pub)
Download a flyer here.
- Make Music Day ‘Come and Sing’ workshop
Wednesday 21 June 2017 - Spring Concert
Saturday 1 April 2016, 7pm,
St James’s Church, Bermondsey – Thurland Road, SE16 4AA. - Christmas Concert
Saturday 17 December 2016, 7pm,
St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe – St Marychurch Street, SE16 4JE.
- Concert
RBCS presents a selection of holy and unholy music and readings in a secret subterranean chamber
Wednesday 14 September 2016, 7:30pm
The Thames Tunnel Sinking Shaft, Brunel Museum, London, SE16 4LF
Part of Isambard Brunel dans son cabaret for Totally Thames festival
- Summer concert: Music to celebrate William Shakespeare (d. 1616) and local hero Ada Salter (b. 1856)
Saturday 16 July 2016, 7.30pm,
St Peter and the Guardian Angels Church, Paradise Street, Bermondsey, SE16 4QD (off King’s Stairs Gardens, near The Angel pub)
Photography by Bryn Bird
- Come-and-sing workshop: choruses from Handel’s Messiah
‘Instant choir’ workshop, Saturday 13th February 2016, 2.30–5.30pm,
St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe – St Marychurch Street, SE16 4JE.
Download a flyer with full details here.
Part of the SEE16 Arts Festival 2016 – a community arts festival organised by I live in SE16
- Spring concert: Handel’s Messiah with orchestra and soloists
Saturday 19th March 2016, 7pm,
St James’s Church, Bermondsey – Thurland Road, SE16 4AA. - RBCS ONLINE
RBCS musical director, Sue Heath-Downey, was interviewed by IliveinSE16 website about the choir and how it got started. Read all about it!
- RBCS IN THE COMMUNITY
On Saturday 19th September 2015, members of RBCS sang at Cherry Garden TRA Fun Day, to celebrate the refurbishment of the TRA Hall.
The organisers said, ‘A great big thanks to you and all your singers for your brilliant contribution to our Fun Day. It was such a lovely finale!‘
Thank you, Cherry Gardens TRA, for inviting us! We thoroughly enjoyed it.
RBCS and friends sing Verdi’s Requiem at St James’s, Bermondsey, 5th April 2014
Photography by Thea Downey
Singing in Brunel’s Thames Tunnel, May 2013
We are proud and honoured to have won a Southwark Civic Award for our community activities.
Please click on the image to see a full-scale version.



