A BRIEF HISTORY OF ST PETER’S CHURCH, HAMMERSMITH 1 ST PETER’S CHURCH “The oldest church in Hammersmith and the only loveable one, although cheaply built and shabby.” (Nikolaus Pevsner) These days it is hard to imagine, but back in 1829 St Peter’s Church stood in solitary splendour, surrounded on all sides by meadows, market gardens and smallholdings. The new church faced out upon a T-junction formed by Black Lion Lane, which ran southwards until it reached the Upper Mall by the river and an unfinished road leading west into St Peter’s Square. Residential dwellings and commercial buildings were to gradually replace the fields and farms as Hammersmith flourished during the remainder of the nineteenth century. On November 8th 1836, The London Gazette defined the boundaries of St Peter’s District as follows: “It is bounded on the west by the Parish of Chiswick; on the south by the River Thames, the Creek and the High Bridge and the Worple Way to the southern extremity of Waterloo Street; on the east northwardly Waterloo Street, including the west side of that street; then westward, by King’s Street, that is the turnpike road leading from London to Brentford, as far as Webb’s Lane, as far as Gould Hawke Road; and on the north by Gould Hawke Road until the said ancient road terminates in Chiswick parish at Stamford Brook.” Although some of the names have changed or disappeared, the parish boundaries remain the same today, 179 years after the foundation stone of St Peter’s Church was laid on 16th May 1827 The village of Hammersmith had been in existence for some hundreds of years by the seventeenth century and was steadily increasing in size and prosperity. The River Thames was a great source of trade and income. Bakers, potters, chandlers and taverns dotted the banks of the river, while the main western coaching road ran out of London through Hammersmith and onwards to Bath and Bristol. Hammersmith riverside now lies in two separate parishes, St Peter’s and St Paul’s. In the early seventeenth century the nearest place of worship available to the residents of Hammersmith was All Saints Church in Fulham. Without a horse it was difficult to reach, particularly in winter. In 1631 St Paul’s Church in Hammersmith was built to ease the problem. Meanwhile, London continued to expand westwards, and by the beginning of the nineteenth century significant housing development in the southwest 2 corner of Hammersmith led to the need for another place of worship. In 1801 the population of Hammersmith was given as 5,600 people. By 1831 this figure was to rise to over 10,000. Before St Peter’s was built there was enough accommodation in the local churches for only 3,158 worshippers. A large fund (in the region of one million pounds) had been raised to celebrate the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Victory at Waterloo in June 1815. During the reign of King George IV, Parliament passed the Church Building Act, which established a body of commissioners with powers to contribute to acceptable schemes from the fund. His Majesty’s Commissioners received many applications from towns and villages throughout England to provide funding for monuments and places of worship. The first application for a ‘chapel of ease’ for Hammersmith was refused. ‘…Due to the state of parliamentary funds, then nearly exhausted, the Commissioners were unable to grant the sum requested’. However, in June 1824 a second round of grants provided a further £500,000 and permission to build St Peter’s Church was finally given. St Peter’s is known a ‘Waterloo church’, one of several built at the time. The Land George Scott, one of six children, was born into a prosperous family in Hammersmith in 1780. The Scott family lived ‘elegantly’ in a fine house on the Lower Mall at Hammersmith although they also owned property and land in central London, including Grosvenor Place and Queen Anne Street. In 1807 George married Hannah Lucy Stoe, the daughter of another wealthy local family. She brought, as her marriage settlement, the sum of £5,000, a large portion of land south of Ravenscourt Park and the land around Black Lion Lane (now St Peter’s Square). In June 1812 George Scott and his father-in-law Harry Stoe bought Ravenscourt Mansion, together with its stables, coach houses and adjoining grounds for £15,000. George and Hannah made it their family home. By the 1820s Scott had become deeply involved in the religious, social and business life of Hammersmith. He was one of the main investors in the Hammersmith Suspension Bridge in 1827, not least because his own interests lay in the land surrounding that area of the river. He was a well-known and 3 respected magistrate who provided generously to the causes of his poorer neighbours. Memories of St Peter’s by Sir William Bull 1922 ‘When old George Scott, of Ravenscourt, gave the ground and subscribed very liberally to the building of the Church, he secretly hoped that the Authorities would call the Church St George’s as a polite compliment to him. But he did not make his wishes known, with the result that the Bishop of London decided to name it St Peter’s. Scott then objected, but it was too late. Herewith I append a characteristic and amusing letter, which Mr Scott wrote at the time.’ 11th April 1827 My dear Sir, Thanks to my Piety the new Church is begun at last, but the Parsons will have it named after that papistical Saint, Peter, because not seeing it in the proper light, as you have done, they had the politeness to tell me they think “George is such a heathenist Saint”. However, Piety is its own reward, and I have lent between 4 & 500 per annum on building leases and am ‘Petering’ away in Squares, Crescents and Terraces and I hope to finish with the “St George and Dragon” and we shall then see which Saint gets most custom. Yours most truly, George Scott George and Hannah had three daughters. The eldest, Lucy Hannah, was born in 1809, followed by Marrienne in 1811 and Georgiana in 1814. Sadly, Hannah Scott died in 1816 at the age of twenty-six. George remarried a few years later to a widow, Mrs Hannah Gibson. They went on to have two more daughters, Jessy Emma and Hannah. It was Hannah Lucy Stoe’s dowry of land that provided the plot on which St Peter’s Church was to be built. ‘The want of further accommodation for Divine Service had long been felt in the increasing Hamlet of Hammersmith. Some difficulty was experienced in obtaining an eligible site, but in June 1826 George Scott Esq. of Ravenscourt, most handsomely presented the parish with an eligible plot of land in Black Lion Lane.” Faulkner's History 1839 The Architect The architect of the church, Edward Lapidge, was born in Hampton Wick, Surrey in 1793. His father, Samuel Lapidge, was a landscape gardener who worked at Hampton Court as an assistant to Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. Between 1756 and 1784 Samuel Lapidge worked on extensive alterations to the landscape gardens at Chiswick House for the 5th Duke of Devonshire, the results of which can still be enjoyed today. 4 As a young man Edward Lapidge became a surveyor to the county of Surrey and in this capacity designed his principal work – the old stone bridge that still spans the Thames at Kingston. In 1823, Lapidge was a finalist in a competition to design a set of new buildings for King’s College, Cambridge. In 1835 he was again a finalist in the competition to design the Fitzwilliam Museum. Some of his successfully completed works include: - Hampton Wick Church (1829), the rebuilding of Hampton Church (1830), St Mary’s Church, Putney (1836) and the enlargement of Fulham Church (1839). In 1852 he designed Reigate Police Station. As a Fellow of the Institute of British Architects he exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1808 and 1850. He died in 1860 and is buried at Hampton Wick Church. The Building Although George Scott donated the site itself, substantial financial contributions were provided by Doctor Horsley, Bishop of London (£250) and the Revd William Wood, Rector and Vicar of Fulham, (£500). The sale of parcels of land at Shepherds Bush and Starch Green raised £1,280 10s and this was added to the £9,099 grant obtained from His Majesty’s Commissioners. St Peter’s Church was eventually built at a cost of nearly £14,000, (roughly equivalent to £1,800,000 in 2006). George and William Bird, well-known and successful local builders were contracted to build the church. The foundation stone was laid on 16th May 1827 ‘St Peter’s Chapel which affords accommodation to 1,600 persons, including 600 free seats, appropriated to the use of the poor, and in which divine service is regularly performed.’ Faulkner’s History 1839 This elegant chapel stands on the bank of the Thames, and on the borders of the populous hamlet of Hammersmith, about half a mile above the Suspension Bridge. The ground was given by _ Scott Esq. and the Chapel erected by His Majesty’s Commissioners. It is a handsome Grecian ionic structure from the design of Edward Lapidge Esq. the ingenious architect of Kingston New Bridge… The chapel is of Suffolk brick finished with bath stone. The tower being entirely of the latter material…. Perhaps St Peter’s Church may be referred to as one of the most successful structures of its kind in the environs of the metropolis.