All Saints, Margaret Street facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids All Saints, Margaret Street
Clockwise from upper left: the exterior of All Saints; the chancel and the high altar; a panorama of the interior.
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Anglo-Catholic
History
Consecrated	1859
Architecture
Heritage designation	Grade I
Architect(s)	William Butterfield
Style	Gothic Revival
Administration
Diocese	London
Province	Canterbury

All Saints, Margaret Street is a very important church in London. It is a Grade I listed building, which means it's considered a special historic place. The church is known for its unique style of worship, called Anglo-Catholic, and its amazing music.

The famous architect William Butterfield designed this church. It was built between 1850 and 1859. Many people think it's Butterfield's best work. It was also one of the first buildings to show the "High Victorian Gothic" style. This style became very popular in British architecture from about 1850 to 1870.

You can find All Saints on the north side of Margaret Street in Fitzrovia, close to Oxford Street. It sits in a small courtyard. Two other buildings are in this courtyard: the vicarage (where the vicar lives) and another building that used to be a choir school. Now, this second building has a parish room and flats for assistant priests.

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History of All Saints Church

All Saints Church started from an older building called the Margaret Street Chapel. This chapel had been on the same spot since the 1760s.

In 1829, a new religious movement, called Tractarianism, began to influence the chapel. One of its leaders, William Dodsworth, became the chapel's leader. Later, another leader, Frederick Oakeley, thought the old chapel was ugly. He started collecting money to build a new, more beautiful church.

In 1845, a man named Alexander Beresford Hope had an idea. He suggested combining the chapel's rebuilding plan with a project by the Cambridge Camden Society. This society wanted to build a perfect model church. Everyone agreed, and the Cambridge Camden Society took charge of the design.

Building the New Church

William Butterfield was chosen as the architect for the new church. The land on Margaret Street was bought for £14,500. The last service in the old chapel was held in 1850. The first stone of the new church was laid on All Saints' Day that same year. Edward Bouverie Pusey, an important religious leader, laid the stone.

For the next nine years, services were held in a temporary chapel nearby. Finally, the new All Saints Church was officially opened on May 28, 1859. The total cost for the church, including the land, was about £70,000. Many large donations helped pay for it.

Architecture and Design

Interior of the church, showing its rich decoration.

All Saints Church was a big step forward for the Gothic Revival style in English architecture. This style brought back ideas from medieval Gothic buildings. Some experts call All Saints "England's most celebrated Victorian church." Others list it as one of the ten most important buildings in the country.

Butterfield's design was unique. He didn't just copy old medieval buildings. He added new ideas and used different materials, like brick. One writer said Butterfield's design was a "bold and magnificent" effort to create a new style. Even the famous critic John Ruskin was amazed. He said that after seeing All Saints, "we may do anything."

Innovative Materials and Colors

Butterfield used building materials in new ways. All Saints is built mostly of brick. This was different from other Gothic Revival churches of the 1840s, which usually used grey stone. Butterfield wanted to "give dignity to brick." The high-quality brick he chose was even more expensive than stone.

The outside of All Saints uses red brick with strong patterns of black brick. It also has bands of stone and carved parts on the gate, church wall, and spire. This means the decoration is part of the building's structure. All Saints was the first church in London to use this "structural polychromy" (many colors built into the structure).

Stunning Interior Decoration

All Saints is especially famous for its inside decoration. Almost every surface is richly patterned or decorated.

The floor has patterned tiles.
The walls have geometric patterns made from brick, tile, and marble.
There are also tiles with painted designs.
Large painted tile pictures called friezes cover parts of the walls.
The ceiling is painted.
Behind the altar, there is painted and gilded (gold-covered) woodwork.

One historian described the interior as "dazzling." He said that "no part of the walls is left undecorated."

The back of the chancel (the area around the altar) has paintings on gilded boards. These are inside a beautifully carved Gothic screen. This work was done by Ninian Comper, restoring earlier work. The Lady Chapel (a smaller chapel) was also decorated by Comper.

A large ceramic tile frieze dominates the north wall. Butterfield designed it, and it was installed in 1873. It shows scenes from the Old Testament, a central Nativity scene (Jesus's birth), and pictures of Early Church Fathers.

The stained-glass windows in All Saints are not as many as in some churches. This is because other buildings are very close to the church. The large west window was replaced in 1877. It now shows a design based on the "Tree of Jesse" window from Wells Cathedral.

The baptistery (where baptisms happen) in the church's south-west corner is known for its marble tiling. The ceiling tiles show a "Pelican in her Piety." This symbol shows a mother pelican feeding her young with her own blood, which represents sacrifice and new life.

Anglo-Catholic Worship

The worship style at All Saints is Anglo-Catholic. This means it follows "the Catholic faith as taught by the Church of England." The church offers a traditional style of worship, like the Oxford Movement promoted in the mid-1800s. This includes:

Special rituals
Choir and organ music
Special clothes for priests (vestments)
The use of incense

All Saints is a traditional Anglo-Catholic church. It has decided that only male bishops and priests will lead its services. This is a choice allowed within the Church of England. The church receives special guidance from the Bishop of Fulham.

Church Leaders (Incumbents)

Here are some of the main leaders, called incumbents or vicars, of All Saints Church over the years:

1859–1873 William Upton Richards
1873–1886 Berdmore Compton
1886–1905 William Allen Whitworth
1905–1908 George Frederick Holden
1908–1934 Henry Falconar Barclay Mackay
1934–1942 Dom Bernard Clements OSB
1943–1951 Cyril Edric Tomkinson
1951–1969 Kenneth Needham Ross
1969–1975 Michael Eric Marshall
1976–1981 David Alan Sparrow
1982–1985 David Michael Hope
1986–1995 David Handley Hutt
1995–2019 Leslie Alan Moses
2021–present Peter Benedict Anthony

Services

All Saints Church holds several services throughout the week:

Sunday
- High Mass at 11:00 am
- Low Mass at 5:15 pm
- Solemn Evensong and Benediction at 6:00 pm
Monday to Friday
- Low Mass at 12:00 noon and 6:30 pm
- Confessions by appointment
Saturday
- Low Mass at 12:00 noon and 6:30 pm (first Mass of Sunday)
- Rosary at 12:00 noon on the second Saturday of the month
Weekday Solemnities (special days)
- High Mass at 6:30 pm (check notices for dates)

Music at All Saints

Music is a very important part of All Saints Church. A choir school was started in 1843. It trained boys to sing for daily church services. The choir was very famous for its excellent singing. Its choristers sang at the Coronations of King Edward VII, King George V, King George VI, and Queen Elizabeth II. They also sang at Queen Victoria's Jubilees. The famous actor Laurence Olivier was once a chorister here!

The choir school closed in 1968. After that, adult sopranos (high female voices) replaced the boys' voices. The church's choir today continues to have very high standards.

The choir and organ play a wide range of music, from very old pieces to new ones. Some pieces were even written especially for this church. The most famous are Walter Vale's arrangements of Rachmaninoff's "Liturgy of St John Chrysostom" and "All-Night Vigil." Rachmaninoff himself visited the church in 1915 and 1923 and approved of these adaptations. They are still sung on Palm Sunday.

The Church Organ

All Saints has a superb four-manual organ built by Harrison and Harrison in 1910. It has 65 "speaking stops," which means it can make many different sounds. The organ is very powerful, like those in cathedrals, but it fits perfectly in All Saints' smaller space. It can sound quiet and intimate, or very loud and grand.

The organ was rebuilt in 1957. In 2003, it was restored again to sound more like it did in 1910, with a rich "Edwardian Romantic" sound.

Many famous organists have played at All Saints, including:

Richard Redhead (the first organist, who wrote the hymn "Rock of Ages")
Walter Vale
William Lloyd Webber (father of Andrew Lloyd Webber)
John Birch
Harry Bramma

Directors of Music

Here are some of the people who have led the music at All Saints:

1839–1864 Richard Redhead
1860–1868 Christopher Edwin Willing
1868–1907 William Stevenson Hoyte
1907–1939 Walter S. Vale
1939–1948 William Lloyd Webber
1949–1951 John Williams
1952–1953 Garth Benson
1953–1958 John Birch
1958–1968 Michael Fleming
1968–1988 (James) Eric Arnold
1988–1989 Murray Stewart
1989–2004 Harry Bramma
2004–2013 Paul Brough
2013–2018 Timothy Byram-Wigfield
2020–present Stephen Farr

Images for kids

The Nativity Scene in the tiled frieze
Baptistery tiling