Grosvenor Chapel

For the constituency, see Westminster St George's (UK Parliament constituency).
Grosvenor Chapel
Country United Kingdom
Denomination Church of England
Tradition Anglo-Catholic
Website www.grosvenorchapel.org.uk
Architecture
Heritage designation Grade II*
Architect(s) Benjamin Timbrell?
Style Classical
Administration
Parish St George's, Hanover Square
Diocese Diocese of London
Division Deanery of Westminster (St Margaret)
Clergy
Priest in charge The Revd Dr Richard Fermer
Priest(s) Fr Dayton Dewey

Grosvenor Chapel is an Anglican church in what is now the City of Westminster, in England, built in 1730s. It inspired many churches in New England. It is situated on South Audley Street in Mayfair.

History

The foundation stone of the Grosvenor Chapel was laid on 7 April 1730 by Sir Richard Grosvenor, 4th Baronet, owner of the surrounding property, who had leased the site for 99 years at a peppercorn rent to a syndicate of four “undertakers” led by Benjamin Timbrell, a prosperous local builder.

The new building was completed and ready to use by April 1731.

John Wilkes' plaque (and his daughter Mary's, below), in the Chapel's upstairs gallery.

Soon after the original 99-year lease ran out in 1829 the chapel was brought within the parochial system as a Chapel of ease to St George's, Hanover Square.

The chapel has been the spiritual home to a number of famous people including John Wilkes, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, and his wife (parents to the Duke of Wellington), Florence Nightingale, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Bishop Charles Gore.

During the Second World War men and women of the American armed forces were welcomed to the chapel for their Sunday services, as recorded on a tablet outside the west wall, and after the war the congregation regularly included such people as the writer Rose Macaulay and Sir John Betjeman, Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death in 1984.

Building

Grosvenor Chapel viewed from Aldford St, circa 1949

The simple classical form of the building, a plain rectangular box with two tiers of arched windows in the side walls, at the east a shallow projection for the communion table and at the west a portico over the pavement and a short spire containing a clock and bell to call the faithful to worship, is derived from recently completed churches such as James Gibbs’ St Martin in the Fields or John James’ St George's, Hanover Square. With the aid of these examples and the illustrations in numerous pattern books available at the time a competent builder like Timbrell, who had worked with Gibbs at St. Martin’s, could himself have easily produced the design for the chapel without needing to commission an architect. The Anglo-Catholic liturgical style of the chapel was expressed in the building by the introduction of fittings and adornments by Sir John Ninian Comper in 1912-13.

Music

The organ in Grosvenor Chapel was built by Abraham Jordan and installed in 1732 at the expense of Sir Richard Grosvenor, 4th Baronet. It was altered twice in the 19th century by Bishop, and rebuilt in 1908 by Ingram. In 1930 J. W. Walker and Sons built a new two manual organ incorporating much second-hand pipework both from the old instrument and from elsewhere. This instrument was replaced in 1991 by William Drake, Organ Builder of Buckfastleigh, Devon, who built a new organ in a broadly 18th-century English style.

A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.

The chapel enjoys a high standard of music with a resident professional group of five singers and an organist. The group is often augmented with other singers and instrumentalists for special occasions including an orchestra for Easter Day. The choir performs a large range of music from Renaissance to the present day.

There are regular free lunchtime concerts on Tuesdays at 1:10 pm

Notable clergy

Curates-in-Charge [1]

The senior priest at Grosvenor Chapel was previously known as the Curate-in-Charge

Priests-in-Charge

Since 2006, the senior priest at Grosvenor Chapel is the Priest-in-Charge.

Popular culture

The wedding at the start of the Richard Curtis film "Love Actually" takes place in the Grosvenor Chapel

References

  1. ↑ "Grosvenor Chapel (No Dedication) Chapel of Ease in the Parish of Hanover Square St George with St Mark", Crockford's Clerical Directory. Church House Publishing, accessed 11 November 2015
  2. ↑ "The Rev'd Dr. Richard Fermer, Priest-in-Charge". Grosvenor Chapel. Retrieved 11 November 2015.

External links

Coordinates: 51°30′32″N 0°09′05″W / 51.5090°N 0.1514°W / 51.5090; -0.1514

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