Ann Widdecombe calls proposed change ‘outrageous’
The Archbishop of Westminster, the leader of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales, has joined a campaign to save the name of a pub.
The Most Rev Vincent Nichols has put his name to a petition to save The Cardinal pub after it was confirmed there were plans for it to revert to its old name, The Windsor Castle.
Former Conservative MP, Ann Widdecombe has also signed the petition to save the pub which is just around the corner from Westminster Cathedral and is a popular meeting place for church-goers.
He said that changing the pub’s name risks losing a reminder of the good work carried out by the Catholic Church, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The Most Rev Nichols said: ‘That pub is being renewed and the brewers have said their intention is to change its name to The Windsor Castle, and that is a shame, because it is another drop of forgetting a presence and a continuity an a set of values in London life for which it has stood.’
The pub was named after Archbishop Nichols’ predecessor Cardinal Manning, who supported a strike by London dock workers in 1889.