The Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel is a place of worship in Hampstead, London. It is a member of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella organisation for British Unitarians. [1] It is also a Grade II Listed building.
The chapel, which stands on Rosslyn Hill, was at first a simple wooden structure. Said to have been built in 1692 by Isaac Honeywood who lived in the adjoining mansion, the Red Lion Hill meeting house was first replaced in 1736 and then, having become unsafe, rebuilt in brick on roughly the same site in 1828. [2] The current building (using the old brick chapel as its hall) was built from 1862 to 1885 in the Neo Gothic style. Two of the building's stained-glass windows are by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris and another is by Henry Holiday. It holds four John Flaxman reliefs and plaques to previous congregants, such as Helen Allingham (the first woman artist admitted to the Royal Academy). Its stone arches and pointed ceiling vault give it an excellent acoustic, making it a popular recording venue.
The minister is Kate Dean. [3] [4] Ministers who have served the Chapel include Stephen Lobb (1647?–1699), Richard Amner (1736–1803), Rochemont Barbauld, husband of the radical poet Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743–1825), Jeremiah Joyce (1763–1816) and William Hincks (1794–1871). It was during the 45-year-long ministry of Thomas Sadler (1822–1891), who arrived at the Chapel in 1846 aged 24, just two years after being awarded his doctorate from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Bavaria, that the current Chapel building was constructed. [5]
Among the prominent residents of Hampstead who occasionally attended the Chapel in the years immediately after it was built in 1862 was the novelist George Eliot. [6] Politicians who were worshippers included John Wood (1789–1856), a trustee of the chapel, who was a Whig MP for Preston (1826–32) and a strong supporter of the Great Reform Act 1832, [7] and William Lawrence (1818-1897), Lord Mayor of London (1863/4) and twice Liberal MP for the City of London (1865–74, 1880–85).
The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christians, and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was formed in 1928, with denominational roots going back to the Great Ejection of 1662. Its headquarters is Essex Hall in central London, on the site of the first avowedly Unitarian chapel in England, set up in 1774.
A Unitarian church is a religious group which follows Unitarianism, Unitarian Universalism, Free Christianity, or another movement with "Unitarian" in its name.
Ullet Road Church is a Unitarian church at 57 Ullet Road, Sefton Park, Liverpool. Both the church and its attached hall are separately recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated Grade I listed buildings. It was the first place of worship in the United Kingdom to register a civil partnership for a same-sex couple. It is a member of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella organisation for British Unitarians.
Newington Green is an open space in North London between Islington and Hackney. It gives its name to the surrounding area, roughly bounded by Ball's Pond Road to the south, Petherton Road to the west, Green Lanes and Matthias Road to the north, and Boleyn Road to the east. The Green is in N16 and the area is covered by the N16, N1 and N5 postcodes. Newington Green Meeting House is situated near the park.
Thomas Worthington was a 19th-century English architect, particularly associated with public buildings in and around Manchester. Worthington's preferred style was the Gothic Revival.
Rosslyn Hill is a road in Hampstead, London, connecting the south end of Hampstead High Street to the north end of Haverstock Hill. It is the site of the Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, St. Stephen's Church and the Royal Free Hospital. It is served by the bus routes N5, C11, 46 and 268. Pond Street links it to Hampstead Heath railway station. Hampstead Hill Gardens runs between Rosslyn Hill and Pond Street.
York Unitarian Chapel is a building on St. Saviourgate, York, England. It is a member of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella organisation for British Unitarians.
Newington Green Unitarian Church is one of England's oldest Unitarian churches, located on Newington Green, north London. The site has maintained strong ties to progressive political and religious causes for over 300 years, and is London's oldest Nonconformist place of worship still in use. The church was founded in 1708 by English Dissenters, a community of which had been gathering around Newington Green for at least half a century before that date. The church is operated by New Unity and is part of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.
Sir William Lawrence was an English builder and Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1865 and 1885.
Richard Amner (1736–1803) was an English Presbyterian divine.
Essex Street Chapel, also known as Essex Church, is a Unitarian place of worship in London. It was the first church in England set up with this doctrine, and was established when Dissenters still faced legal threat. As the birthplace of British Unitarianism, Essex Street has particularly been associated with social reformers and theologians. The congregation moved west in the 19th century, allowing the building to be turned into the headquarters for the British and Foreign Unitarian Association and the Sunday School Association. These evolved into the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella organisation for British Unitarianism, which is still based on the same site, in an office building called Essex Hall. This article deals with the buildings, the history, and the current church, based in Kensington.
The Octagon Chapel, Liverpool, was a nonconformist church in Liverpool, England, opened in 1763. It was founded by local congregations, those of Benn's Garden and Kaye Street chapels. The aim was to use a non-sectarian liturgy; Thomas Bentley was a major figure in founding the chapel, and had a hand in the liturgy.
Ditchling Unitarian Chapel is a Unitarian chapel in Ditchling, a village in the English county of East Sussex. A congregation of General Baptists began to meet in the 17th century in the village, which was a local centre for Protestant Nonconformist worship, and by the time the present simple Vernacular-style chapel was constructed in 1740 a large proportion of the population held Baptist beliefs. Along with other General Baptist chapels in Sussex, the congregation moved towards Unitarian views in the mid-18th century; this caused a schism which resulted in a new chapel being formed at nearby Wivelsfield. The character of the Ditchling chapel was wholly Unitarian by 1800, and it has continued under various names since then. People associated with the chapel include William Hale White, Henry Acton, Adrian Boult—who was married there—and G. K. Chesterton. The chapel is set back from Ditchling's main street and has an adjoining house and graveyard, all of which contribute to the character of the conservation area which covers the centre of Ditchling village. English Heritage has listed the chapel at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
William Hincks was an Irish Unitarian minister, theologian and professor of natural history. He was the first professor of natural history at University College, Toronto and president of the Canadian Institute. He was also the first editor of the Unitarian magazine The Inquirer.
The Gravel Pit Chapel was established in 1715–1716 in Hackney, then just outside London, for a Nonconformist congregation, which by the early 19th century began to identify itself as Unitarian. In 1809 the congregation moved to the New Gravel Pit Chapel nearby, while its old premises were taken over by Congregationalists. The New Gravel Pit Chapel was closed and demolished in1969.
Thomas Sadler (1822–1891) was an English Unitarian minister and writer.
St John's Downshire Hill, Hampstead, is a proprietary chapel of the Church of England, located in Downshire Hill, Hampstead, London, in the Parish of St Stephen with All Hallows. Referred to as St John's Church, the building is formally a chapel. The church should not be confused with St John-at-Hampstead, which is located in Church Row, Hampstead, being the parish church of what is now the neighbouring parish.
The First Church in Roxbury, also known as the First Church of Roxbury is the current headquarters of the Unitarian Universalist ("UU") Urban Ministry. A church on this site has been in use since 1632 when early English settlers built the first meetinghouse. Since then, the meetinghouse has been rebuilt four times, and its appearance today reflects how the meetinghouse looked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Mary Gillies was a British children's author, and sister of the artist Margaret Gillies.
Hastings Unitarian Church, also known as Hastings Unitarian and Free Christian Church, is a place of worship for Unitarians in the town and borough of Hastings, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex. It has been in continuous use since it was built in 1868, having been founded the previous year by prominent Unitarian John Bowring for a congregation which had met in hired premises since 1858. The church, designed by George Beck, is Neoclassical in style and has an 18th-century organ.
51°33′19″N0°10′23″W / 51.5554°N 0.1730°W
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