Essex Street Chapel facts for kids
Essex Street Chapel, also known as Essex Church, is a Unitarian place of worship in London, England. It was the first church in England to be set up with this type of belief, at a time when Dissenters (people who didn't follow the main Church of England) still faced legal problems. Because it was the starting point for British Unitarianism, Essex Street has been linked to many important social reformers and thinkers.
In the 1800s, the church moved west. The original building then became the main office for the British and Foreign Unitarian Association and the Sunday School Association. These groups later became the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, which is the main organization for British Unitarianism today. Their offices are still on the same site, in a building called Essex Hall. This article tells you about the buildings (from 1778, 1887, and 1958), the history, and the current church, which is now in Kensington.
Contents
The Original Building
The first chapel was located near the Strand, on land that used to be home to Essex House. This was a large London house belonging to the Earl of Essex, which is how the street and the hall got their names. The location was handy, about halfway between the City and Westminster, in London's legal area.
In the mid-1700s, some rooms in the old nobleman's house were used as an auction room for books. This space was easily changed into a simple meeting house (a place for religious gatherings). Within a few years, there were enough people in the congregation and enough donations to build a new church on the old foundations. This new building was finished by 1778. It received money from important people like Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer and Thomas Brand Hollis, who was known for his political ideas. Another supporter was Samuel Heywood, a chief justice. The new building is thought to have included the old chapel from Essex House. The chapel didn't get an organ until 1860.
A Look at History
How Unitarianism Began Here
The first minister was Theophilus Lindsey. He had recently left the Church of England because he strongly believed in Unitarian ideas. He moved to London specifically to find others who thought like him and to start a new church group, or denomination. He quickly got support from well-known English Presbyterian ministers like Richard Price and Joseph Priestley, who famously discovered oxygen.
At the time, Unitarian beliefs were against the law. But legal problems were solved with help from a lawyer named John Lee, who later became the Attorney-General (a top government lawyer). The very first service, held on April 17, 1774, was a big event. People from far away, like Leeds, wrote about it. They said the church was "respectable and numerous" and praised the preacher's kind and Christian message. Two hundred people came to hear Lindsey speak, including Benjamin Franklin, who was then working for the American colonies. This was the first time in England that a church was openly formed around Unitarian beliefs.
Moving to Kensington
By the 1880s, London was changing. Many people were moving out of the city center, and the church's membership had dropped a lot. As early as 1867, Reverend Robert Spears had helped start a Unitarian group a few miles west. This group had grown and moved several times but didn't have a permanent home.
Sir James Clarke Lawrence, who was the Lord Mayor of London and a Liberal MP, bought and gave some land in Kensington. A temporary church made of corrugated iron was built there. Meanwhile, the main Unitarian groups, the British and Foreign Unitarian Association and the Sunday School Association, needed better offices.
So, a decision was made: the Essex Street building would be given to these groups to redevelop. The chapel would move to join the Kensington congregation. It would also take enough money to build a wonderful new church in Kensington, replacing the iron one.
The new church opened in 1887 and was called Essex Church, serving the Kensington area. Over time, the building started to wear out. Air pollution damaged the stone, the steeple was removed in 1960 because it was unsafe, and the roof was damaged by ice from an airplane in 1971. By the 1970s, the whole building was in poor condition. It was torn down and replaced with a modern church, which also had other useful rooms. The first service in the new building was held in July 1977.
Essex Hall Today
In the mid-1880s, the original Essex Hall was torn down and rebuilt by architects Chatfeild-Clarke. The new building was designed for many uses: offices, meeting rooms, a bookshop, reading rooms, and a large hall that could seat 600 people. It was finished a year before the Kensington church, and its opening service in 1886 included many important people from British Unitarianism.
The hall was often rented out for concerts and public meetings. For example, the Fabian Society, a famous political group, met there for many years. Public meetings could sometimes get very lively!
During World War I, a house next to Essex Hall was used as a simple hostel for soldiers and sailors. In 1925, some changes were made to Essex Hall to help the Lyndsey Press (a publishing company) get started. From 1928, the main Unitarian group became the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (GA), which continued to work from Essex Hall.
Much of Essex Street was destroyed by bombs during the Blitz in 1944. After the war, the bombed ruins were cleared, and the site was used as a car park for a while. Eventually, permission and money were found to build new offices. The architect, Kenneth S. Tayler, said that what seemed like a disaster at first became a challenge that the Unitarian community met with great energy. About half of the new building's space was planned to be rented out to other groups to help pay the bills. For 14 years, from the bombing until the new building was finished in 1958, the work that usually happened at Essex Hall was done in spare rooms at Dr Williams's Library.
The Current Church
Essex Church is now located at Notting Hill Gate in Kensington, West London. It offers a full schedule of activities. The church is led by Reverend Sarah Tinker, who became a minister after working as a teacher.
Important People Connected to Essex Chapel
Many interesting people were involved with Essex Street Chapel over the years:
- Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, a politician, was an early member.
- William Smith, an abolitionist and Member of Parliament, worked hard to pass the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813. This law finally made it legal to practice Unitarianism in England. He was also the grandfather of Florence Nightingale.
- Mary Hays, an author and friend of Mary Wollstonecraft, was also connected to the chapel.
- Frederick Nettlefold was a president of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association. He gave a lot of money to help build the 1886 Essex Hall.
- Rupert Potter, the father of the famous author and conservationist Beatrix Potter, was also associated with the chapel.
