Saint Thomas Chapel, Kingly Street, London

case study 15 Saint Thomas Chapel, Kingly Street, London

1702 Chapel of ease, district church, altered Architect unknown

Historical note

The new chapel of St James Westminster is identified as St Thomas, Kingly Street, and part of the Six Acre Close. The street developed from the footpath which ran through the close between Piccadilly and Marylebone. Although the neighbourhood was located in the less fashionable area of St James’ parish, Strype described the street as “a pretty good street, having divers very good houses fit for Gentry.”1 On November 17, 1687 a small parcel of land was as- signed to Thomas Tenison, rector of the parish of St James Piccadilly (and later archbishop of Canterbury) for the erection of a chapel and a school. In the 1680s the parishes of St Anne Soho and St James Piccadilly proved insufficient to accommodate the rapid increase in population. Although the chapel was es- tablished in the less fashionable and poorer area of the parish, it soon became an important center for religious life. Already by 1702 the chapel—or taber- nacle as it was called—had fallen into disrepair. A more convenient and larger chapel was built on the same site. The foundation stone was laid by Captain Outing and Justice Tulley at the north-east angle of the church on March 5, 1702. The inscription which is now concealed, stated: “This chapel rebuilt 1702, Thomas, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury being founder and principal benefac- tor.” The chapel was opened on October 4, with the usual services held at the appointed hours. The consecration probably took place at a later time. Richard Burd, the preacher of the chapel dedicated two sermons to the new chapel. They were preached on October 18 and November 8 of the same year 1702.2

1 John Strype, A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, vol. 26, as quoted in: “Kingly and Carnaby Street Area,” in Survey of London, St James Westminster, ed. F.H.W. Sheppard (London: London County Council, 1963), vols.31, 32, part 2, 176–95. British History Online, accessed March 18, 2016, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols31-2/pt2/ pp176-195. 2 Survey of London, “Kingly and Carnaby Street Area,” 176–95.

It is unknown who designed the original chapel, though Mr Ludby, car- penter, was appointed by the trustees to manage the work of construction. Christopher Wren, architect of the parish church of St James Piccadilly was consulted over the first major repairs in 1713. It is known that the trustees se- lected one of four alternative plans designed for the new chapel. Its appearance in 1702 is difficult to determine. Repairs and restorations were undertaken in 1713, 1766, 1824, and 1854. The actual building is in plain brick. The plan consists of a nave with aisles separated by two ranges of superimposed Ionic on Doric columns. The aisles are galleried, as also is the west end of the nave. Both the east and the west ends have a square projection. A plain, square tower rises at the west. The west front is now entirely invisible due to the twentieth-century buildings of Regent Street. The east front has a tall, roundheaded window in its central projection below a triangular modillioned pediment. For the interior, the trustees decided that “The compass ceiling in the chapel be ribbed from column to column in the plain mouldings only.” After the 1713 reparations, the chapel was described as “now a very spacious, and beautiful Chapel, wherein is an excellent and extraordinary Organ, fine capacious Galleries on both sides, a large Altar-piece and Chancel, paved with Marble, two large Branches and other Ornaments.”3 The east wall of the nave is fully paneled in the lower level with pilasters supporting an entablature. A wooden reredos stands behind the altar. Its central panel—containing an oil painting of St Thomas since the 1869 dedication to this saint—is flanked by scroll-buttressed pilasters. The imposts of the east window are supported by two Ionic pilasters which are linked to the reredos.4

Sermon 1

Sermon title: Two sermons preached on the 3d. and 6th. Sundays after the opening of the new Chappel of St. James’s Westminster. The first the 18th. day of October, the second on the 8th day of November, 1702. By Richard Burd.

Imprint: London: printed for Sam. Keble, 1702.

Author: Richard Burd

3 James Paterson, Pietas Londiniensis as quoted in: Survey of London, “Kingly and Carnaby Street Area,” 176–95. 4 Survey of London, “Kingly and Carnaby Street Area,” 176–95.