Kenneth Belden ('Ken Belden') was the chairman of the trustees of the Westminster Theatre during the 1960s and 70s when it was the centre of Christian drama in the West End. Belden’s vision and drive turned the theatre developed out of the shell of the 18th century Charlotte Chapel into a modern arts centre with some of the best theatre facilities in London.
The aim was to present plays that would ‘give people new courage and purpose’. Belden saw the theatre as a bid to change the moral climate of the nation at a time ‘when the kitchen sink, the theatre of cruelty and the theatre of the absurd dominated the London scene’. He delighted in stories of couples leaving the theatre determined to patch up their failing marriages or trade unionists and employers finding common purpose.
The theatre had been bought in 1946 by the Westminster Memorial Trust, set up by the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) movement as a ‘living memorial’ to those who had died in the war against Hitler. Returning servicemen donated their war gratuities towards its purchase. Several of Belden’s close friends had been killed in the war and he believed theatre could convey the values needed to underpin freedom and democracy.
At first the Westminster staged MRA’s amateur productions. But in 1961, when Belden took charge, the trust began hiring professional casts, in plays and musicals written mostly by Peter Howard and Alan Thornhill. Howard’s Christmas pantomime Give a dog a bone ran for 11 seasons. The Westminster also pioneered ‘A Day of London Theatre’ for schools, which, over 22 years, was attended by over 200,000 pupils and teachers. Parties were taken behind the scenes and then saw a performance.
His encounter with the Oxford Group, the forerunner of MRA, during his studies in Oxford, in 1931, completely changed his life.
Michael Smith, an obituary in 'The Independent', London, 4 December 2002
Belden was a member of the Council of the Caux Foundation 1951-1978.
