CHURCH OF ENGLAND CHURCHES

Websites: www.london.anglican.org https://southwark.anglican.org www.explorechurches.org

Chelsea Old Church

In 1528 Sir Thomas More had the southern portion of All Saints Chelsea rebuilt as his private chapel. The church's mid-20^thC appearance derives from the building having been struck by an aerial bomb in 1941. The 13^thC exterior is commemorated on items of stationery that can sometimes be seen attached to the noticeboard by the building's entrance.

Location: 64 Cheyne Walk, SW3 5LT (purple, turquoise)

Website: www.chelseaoldchurch.org.uk

The Fifty New Churches Act of 1711

The Fifty New Churches Act of 1711 was an item of legislation that was intended to provide the financial wherewithal to build new churches in London that would minister to the religious life of the fast-expanding city. The measure was followed by a further seven Acts in the space of eight years that sought to explain its operation. Over 1711-30 it facilitated the creation of a dozen new churches, a number of rebuilt steeples, the enhancement of Westminster Abbey, and the finishing of Greenwich Hospital.

The Friends of the City Churches

The Friends of the City Churches organisation was set up in 1994 in response to the Templeman Report. The document had stated that the City only needed four churches. The Friends thought otherwise.

Website: www.london-city-churches.org.uk

The Guards Chapel

The Guards Chapel was designed by Bruce George (1915-2016) of George, Trew & Dunn, a firm that historically had specialised in hospitals. The brief included that the building had to G.F. Street's surviving Lombardo-Byzantine mosaic apse and John Richard Clayton's Arts & Crafts stained glass. George was an admirer of Nordic architecture, particularly that of Alvar Aalto. He drew on the design of the Turku Resurrection Chapel.

Location: Wellington Barracks, Birdcage Walk, SW1E 6HQ (orange, turquoise)

Website: www.householddivision.org.uk/guards-chapel

The Hawksmoor Churches

The architect designed a number of churches in London. They are: St Alfege Church Greenwich, St Anne's Limehouse, Christ Church Spitalfields, St George's Bloomsbury, St George in the East, and St Mary Woolnoth.

The writer Iain Sinclair's day jobs included mowing the grass in various Tower Hamlets churchyards, a couple of which surrounded Hawksmoor churches. This piqued his interest in the architect s work. He came to the conclusion that they had been built upon a pattern and that they radiated some dark force. The idea was amplified in Peter Ackroyd s novel Hawksmoor (1985).

The Historic Chapels Trust

The Historic Chapels Trust is a charity that cares for redundant non-Anglican places of worship.

Website: https://hct.org.uk

Modernist Churches

Keith Murray built Modernist churches in East London.

Peculiars

Until 1847 St Mary-le-Bow was one of thirteen peculiars in the City of London. It was supervised by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Non-royal peculiars (as Duke of Lancaster): the Savoy Chapel, the Temple Church, the Chapel of Lincoln's Inn, and the Chapel of Grays Inn.

See Also: LIBERTIES

The Reformation

Acoustics

The Reformation changed the acoustics of churches. It became important for voices to be heard. The reverberations were dampened. A different type of music came to be written in response to the new sound environment. It had more notes in and was faster.

St George

St George (d.c.303) was a Christian martyr who died at Lydda (in present-day Turkey). During the 6^thC stories of his supposed exploits began to be attached to him. By the 12thC he became associated with the slaying of a dragon; this development may have derived from the myth of Perseus, who is supposed to have slain a sea monster near Lydda.

St George became known to the English as a result of the Crusades to the Holy Lands. In the 14^thC King Edward III made him the national saint. George was popular internationally. He is also the patron saint of Ethiopia, Georgia (the country), Istanbul, Russia, various portions of Spain, and the Italian cavalry. Catalans give roses to their loved ones on St George's Day.

St Margaret's Westminster

With St Martin s-in-the-Fields, St Margaret's Westminster was one of the two parishes of which Westminster was composed. It was founded in the 12thC by an Abbot of Westminster to provide for the spiritual needs of Westminster Abbey's tenants and servants. In 1189 Pope Clement III exempted the church from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. In 1614 the House of Commons made St Margaret's Westminster its church. In 1840 the parish reverted to being part of the Diocese of London.

Location: St Margaret Street, SW1P 3JX (purple, red)

See Also: WESTMINSTER ABBEY

Website: www.westminster-abbey.org/st-margarets-church

St Mary Rotherhithe

St Mary's Rotherhithe's rebuilding was completed in 1716. The Bishop's Chair was made from timbers that had been part of the Fighting Temeraine.

Location: 72a St Marychurch Street, SE16 4JE

Website: www.stmaryrotherhithe.org

St Matthias Old Church Poplar

St Matthias Old Church was only church to be built in London during the English Republic (the 1650s). It was commissioned by the East India Company.

Location: 112 Poplar High Street, E14 0AE

St Pancras Old Church

St Pancras (d.304) was a fourteen-year-old Roman Christian whom the Emperor Diocletian (c.243-c.312) ordered to be beheaded after he refused to worship the Roman gods. He became the patron saint of children. In 595 St Augustine (d.604) brought relics of St Pancras to Britain at the instruction of Pope Gregory I (c.540-604). St Pancras Old Church was built probably in the early 7^thC on a hillock that stood above River Fleet's flood plain. It is almost certainly one of the oldest sites of Christianity in England. The foundations of the present building were lain in the 12^thC. In the 14^thC the settlement that had grown up around it was largely abandoned because the local soil had a high clay content and therefore was hard to work. The building was largely rebuilt in the 16^thC.

By the late 18^thC only one service a month was being conducted in the church. In 1822 St Pancras New Church was built on the Euston Road to meet the religious needs of the West End s growing Anglican population. St Pancras Old Church was redesignated as a chapel-of-ease. The building soon became ruinous. In 1847 its tower was demolished and rebuilt to the south thereby enabling the nave to be lengthened westwards. The graveyard was closed in 1854. In 1877 it was reopened as a public garden. The church was refurbished in 1888.

Location: Pancras Road, NW1 1UL (purple, blue)

Website https://stpancrasoldchurch.posp.co.uk

St Paul's Knightsbridge

St Paul'#s Knightsbridge (1843) was designed to express the views of the Oxford Movement.

Many of St Paul's Knightsbridge incumbents have gone on to become bishops. One who did not do so was the Rev Donald Harris, who was its Vicar from the mid-1950s until the late 1970s. The Rev Harris was given to referring to his wealthier parishioners as trout , and whenever he was due to be visited by one of them in the late afternoon he was given to declaring trout for tea.

Location: 32a Wilton Place, SW1X 8SH (blue, red)

Website: www.stpaulsknighsbridge.org

Southwark Cathedral

The Church of St Saviour is an example of 13^thC Gothic architecture. In 1897 the building was designated as Southwark Cathedral. The Diocese of Southwark's first bishop was enthroned in 1905.

Location: Montague Close, SE1 9DA

Website: https://cathedral.southwark.anglican.org

South Bank Religion

Mervyn Stockwood (1913-1995) was the vicar of the university church in Cambridge. He gathered arrived himself a group of able young clergymen. Their number included John Robinson (1919-1983), the Dean of Clare College, and Eric James (1925-2012), the Chaplain of Trinity College.

Stockwood was appointed the Bishop of Southwark. He took with him his client group. James was appointed to be the Vicar of St George's Southwark. Robinson was appointed to be the Bishop of Woolwich. Following the publication of Robinson's Honest To God (1963) the phenomenon of South Bank Religion drew national attention.

In 1964 James stepped from St George's to become the Director of Parish & People. During the five years during which he held the position he became a national figure within the Church. The organisation underwent a period of substantial growth.

James proved to be socially more progressive than Stockwood. The former believed that the Church-maintained schools were elitist and that the Church should support state efforts to create a more egalitarian society. In 1973 a fellow residentiary canon of Southwark got into a dispute with Hugh Montefiore, the Bishop of Kingston, on the issue. Stockwood backed his fellow prelate. As a result, James found that he lost his influence within the Diocese of Southwark.

Robert Runcie, the Bishop of St Albans, respected James's abilities. In 1973 he salvaged the priest's career by appointing him as Canon Missioner.

In 1978 James was appointed to be the Preacher to Gray's Inn. He flourished in the role, becoming the trusted confessor of members of the judiciary. The following year he was appointed to be the Director of Christian Action. (John Collins had retired from the position in 1973.)

James was widely regarded as being the conscience of the Church. In his capacity as the Director of Christian Action he proposed the establishment of the Church of England commission that eventually produced the Faith In The City (1985) report. Its operation was supported by Christian Action

In 1990 James retired. He stated publicly that he was gay. In 1993 a Lambeth D.D. was conferred upon him. In 1996 he stepped down from the Preachership of Gray's Inn.

David Backhouse 2024