St James's Church, Piccadilly

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St James's Church, Piccadilly
Church of St Jamess Piccadilly 2 (5123798865).jpg
The church in 2011 51°30′31″N0°8′12″W / 51.50861°N 0.13667°W / 51.50861; -0.13667
St James's Church, Piccadilly
Location Piccadilly, London
CountryEngland
Denomination Church of England
Churchmanship Liberal
Website www.sjp.org.uk
History
Dedication James the Great
Dedicated13 July 1684
Architecture
Heritage designationGrade I
Architect(s) Christopher Wren
Administration
Diocese Diocese of London
Clergy
Rector Lucy Winkett
Assistant priest(s) Ayla Lepine
Curate(s) Mariama Ifode-Blease
NSM(s) Daniel Norris
Ivan Khovacs
Laity
Churchwarden(s) Claire Wright and Dee Hetherington

St James's Church, Piccadilly, also known as St James's Church, Westminster, and St James-in-the-Fields, is an Anglican church on Piccadilly in the centre of London, England. The church was designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren.

Contents

The church is built of red brick with Portland stone dressings. Its interior has galleries on three sides supported by square pillars and the nave has a barrel vault supported by Corinthian columns. The carved marble font and limewood reredos are both notable examples of the work of Grinling Gibbons. In 1902, an outside pulpit was erected on the north wall of the church. It was designed by Temple Moore and carved by Laurence Arthur Turner. It was damaged in 1940, but restored at the same time as the rest of the fabric. [1]

History

The church's interior Nave of St James's Church, Piccadilly.jpg
The church's interior

In 1662, Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans, was granted land for residential development on what was then the outskirts of London. He set aside land for the building of a parish church and churchyard on the south side of what is now Piccadilly. Christopher Wren was appointed the architect in 1672 and the church was consecrated on 13 July 1684 by Henry Compton, the Bishop of London. In 1685 the parish of St James was created for the church.

The church was severely damaged by enemy action in the London Blitz on 14 October 1940. [2] After the war ended, the church was restored by Sir Albert Richardson. Specialist contractors, Rattee and Kett, of Cambridge, under the supervision of Messrs. W. F. Heslop and F. Brigmore, undertook restoration work, which was completed in 1954. [3] The old lead-covered spire was replaced by a much lighter fibreglass copy. [4] The restored interior, with its pews and light fittings, represents a rare survival of a full suite of church furnishing by Richardson. Southwood Garden was created in the churchyard by Viscount Southwood after the Second World War as a garden of remembrance, "to commemorate the courage and fortitude of the people of London", and was opened by Queen Mary in 1946. [5]

Present

View looking southeast from the tower, showing many of the landmarks of London Tower view 2013.jpg
View looking southeast from the tower, showing many of the landmarks of London

Like many central London churches surrounded by commercial buildings and ever fewer local people, St James's lost numbers and momentum in the 1960s and 1970s. When, in 1980, Donald Reeves was offered the post of rector, the bishop allegedly said "I don't mind what you do, just keep it open." [6] During that decade and most of the 1990s numbers and activity grew, the clergy and congregation gaining a reputation for being a progressive, liberal and campaigning church. That has continued. The "congregation" rejects that description and prefers "community". It is centred on the Eucharist, the celebration of the principal Christian sacrament. It finds expression in a wide range of interest groups: spiritual explorers, labyrinth walking, Julian prayer meetings, the Vagabonds group (a lively discussion group which takes its name from a William Blake poem and in faithfulness to that text meets in a local alehouse), an LGBT group and many others. The community has actively supported, and supports, the ordination of women to all the orders of the church, the just treatment of asylum seekers and those living in poverty. It celebrates what it regards as the "radical welcome" found in the heart of the Gospels and attested to by the Incarnation. The church was embroiled in a controversy in 2023 after organizing a drag show in the Church, [7] it drew some criticism, being described as "inappropriate". [8] In May 2024 St James's was the first church to have a show garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Its gold award-winning 'Imagine the World to be Different' garden was designed by Robert Myers to highlight the restorative power of urban green spaces and was sponsored by Project Giving Back in support of its fundraising campaign for the Wren Project, to revitalise the church and garden. [9] [10] [11]

Organ

The west wall of the Church is dominated by a sumptuous organ case of carved and gilded oak by Grinling Gibbons, which originally contained an organ by Renatus Harris, originally built for the Roman Catholic chapel in Whitehall Palace, and installed here in 1691. This organ was entirely rebuilt in 1852 by J. C. Bishop, who added the choir case that now sits in front of the original Gibbons Case. A restoration project has been underway since at least 1982, [12] which has not yet come to fruition. The current proposal is to re-build a new organ within the historic case. [13] At present, the case sits empty, and an electronic replacement is used instead.

Concerts

Concerts are regularly held in the church. [14] Concerts have included performances by popular contemporary musicians such as John Grant, [15] Tokio Myers, [16] Victoria Canal, R.E.M., [17] the folk musician Laura Marling as part of her "church tour", [18] the collegiate Indian-American music group Penn Masala [19] and Devin Townsend on his 2015 UK acoustic tour. [20]

Creative art programme

Replica section of the Israeli Security Wall, built in the church grounds, as part of the international protest against the Israeli wall Israel Wall in London.JPG
Replica section of the Israeli Security Wall, built in the church grounds, as part of the international protest against the Israeli wall
The River, and Passage by Che Lovelace installed in St James's Piccadilly. Photo Stephen White & Co The River, and Passage by Che Lovelace installed in St James's Piccadilly. Photo Stephen White & Co.jpg
The River, and Passage by Che Lovelace installed in St James's Piccadilly. Photo Stephen White & Co

Hauser & Wirth, a contemporary art gallery, ran a programme of outdoor sculpture exhibitions in Southwood Garden in the grounds of the church in 2009–2010. The first exhibition was of work by the Swiss sculptor Hans Josephsohn. [21]

From 23 December 2013 to 5 January 2014 the "Bethlehem Unwrapped" demonstration against the Israeli West Bank barrier featured an art installation by Justin Butcher, Geof Thompson, and Dean Willars, which included a large replica section of the wall. The installation blocked the view of the church, other than a section of the top of the tower, which was stated by church authorities to be part of the point of the demonstration.

Revd Lucy Winkett and Revd Dr Rosemarie Mallett at the dedication of the plaque commemorating 250th anniversary of Ottobah Cugoano's baptism on 20 Aug 2023 Cugoano plaque at St James's Piccadilly.jpg
Revd Lucy Winkett and Revd Dr Rosemarie Mallett at the dedication of the plaque commemorating 250th anniversary of Ottobah Cugoano's baptism on 20 Aug 2023

Following a short-term residency based in the bell tower at St James's, Turner Prize nominated artist Jesse Darling's Miserere (a substantial new work in the form of a choir or congregation) was installed in the church 12-16 October 2022. [22]

In September 2023, a series of murals by Che Lovelace were unveiled in the church, to mark the 250th anniversary of the baptism of abolitionist Ottobah Cugoano, which took place at St James's in 1773; it was the first permanent artwork commissioned by the church, as well as the first anywhere in the world to commemorate Cugoano. [23]

Rectors of St James's

The external pulpit The external pulpit of St James's Church, Piccadilly.jpg
The external pulpit

Rector died in post

Other staff

Notable baptisms

Notable weddings

St James's in 1815 St James's South and east fronts 1814 edited.jpg
St James's in 1815

Notable burials

Notable memorials

Detached burial ground

St James's Gardens, shown west of Euston Station, on an 1890 Bacon Traveler's Pocket Map of London by George Washington Bacon 1890 Bacon Traveler's Pocket Map of London, England - Geographicus - London-bacon-1890 (cropped to show St James's Gardens, Camden).jpg
St James's Gardens, shown west of Euston Station, on an 1890 Bacon Traveler's Pocket Map of London by George Washington Bacon
Saint James, Westminster Improvement Act 1789
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of Great Britain (1714-1801).svg
Long title An Act for providing an additional Burying Ground for the Parish of Saint James, Westminster, and erecting a Chapel adjoining thereto, and also a House for the Residence of a Clergyman to officiate in burying the Dead.
Citation 29 Geo. 3. c. 47
Dates
Royal assent 31 July 1789

A separate burial ground [34] of St James's Church was developed in Camden, [35] [36] in use from 1790 until 1853. [37] It had been obtained via a 1789 act of Parliament (29 Geo. 3. c. 47), which also provided for the erection of a chapel of ease for the parish, designed by Thomas Hardwick and opening in 1791. [38]

With the railway-related expansion around Euston Station, the Chapel was given a parish of its own in 1871, [39] but the cemetery fell into disrepair and became St James's Gardens in 1878 with only a few gravestones lining the edges of the park. [40] Part of the Gardens, located between Hampstead Road and Euston railway station, was built over when Euston station was expanded [41] in around 1887. To avoid public outcry, the affected remains were reinterred at St Pancras Cemetery. [42] The Gardens were closed to the public in 2017 [43] to allow the further expansion of Euston station for the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project. [44] Between October 2018 and 2020, archaeologists working on HS2 excavated approximately 40,000 burials. [44] It was proposed to re-bury the remains after they had been examined by osteo-archaeologists. [44] The remains were agreed to be re-interred at Surrey's Brookwood Cemetery which has received relocated remains from London since the 1870s. While almost all remains would be relocated there, it was agreed in 2019 that Matthew Flinders' remains would be buried in his home village of Donington, Lincolnshire. [45] Work to prepare for the arrival of the remains at Brookwood began around August 2020 and was completed sometime after November 2020. [46] The Church hosted an exhibition, Stories of St James's Burial Ground, with Museum of London Archaeology in spring 2023. [47]

Notable burials included:

Sources

See also

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References

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