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All Saints, Margaret Street

Coordinates: 51°31′02.10″N 00°08′20.64″W / 51.5172500°N 0.1390667°W / 51.5172500; -0.1390667
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All Saints, Margaret Street
Clockwise from upper left: the exterior of All Saints; the chancel and the high altar; a panorama of the interior.
Map
DenominationChurch of England
ChurchmanshipAnglo-Catholic
Websiteasms.uk
History
Consecrated1859
Architecture
Heritage designationGrade I
Architect(s)William Butterfield
StyleGothic Revival
Administration
ProvinceCanterbury
DioceseLondon
Clergy
Bishop(s)Jonathan Baker
Vicar(s)Peter Anthony
Laity
Director of musicStephen Farr

All Saints[a] is an Anglo-Catholic church on Margaret Street in London, England. Founded in the late 18th century as Margaret Street Chapel, the church became an example of the Oxford Movement in the 1830s and 40s. The Movement also prompted the reconstruction of the church in the 1850s under the architect William Butterfield. It has been hailed as Butterfield's masterpiece[1] and a pioneering building of the High Victorian Gothic style that would characterize British architecture from around 1850 to 1870.[2]

The church is situated on the north side of Margaret Street near Oxford Street, within a small courtyard. Two other buildings face onto this courtyard: one is the vicarage and the other (formerly a choir school) now houses the parish room and flats for assistant priests.

All Saints is noted for its architecture, style of worship, and musical tradition.

History

According to the Survey of London, Margaret Street Chapel was founded by William Cudworth, who used to be Methodist but later became antinomian. The chapel was built in 1752 and leased to Cudworth in 1754, and there was a nonconformist congregation by 1757.[3] In 1776, the deist David Williams rented the chapel to promote a "universalist liturgy".[4] In the 1780s the chapel was closed[5] before it became a proprietary chapel in the Church of England and its ownership came under the Crown.[4] J. D. Hazlewood was the minister of the chapel for a period of time after its reopening.[6] According to Galloway and Rawll, the chapel looked like an 18th century meeting house of English Dissenters and did not possess architectural significance.[7]

The chapel was damaged in the Titchfield Street fire of 1825. In 1827 the English banker and politician Henry Drummond purchased the site and the building, hoping to promote Irvingism within the Church of England.[4] He also appointed William Dodsworth to be the minister of Margaret Street Chapel in 1829.[4][8]

William Dodsworth (1798–1861), minister of Margaret Street Chapel from 1829 to 1837, introduced the Oxford Movement there.

William Dodsworth became an early follower of the Oxford Movement,[9][10] an 19th-century religious movement in the Church of England that sought a return to Catholic thoughts and practices.[11] It was preceded by an 1820s intellectual revival at Oxford, in particular the Noetics of Oriel College,[12] and its key leaders were John Henry Newman, Richard Hurrell Froude, John Keble, and Edward Bouverie Pusey.[13][11] The Movement's ideas are manifest in the Tracts for the Times, and its adherents were often called "Tractarians".[14] Among its ideas, the Tracts emphasised apostolic succession and the episcopacy,[15] defended the practice of liturgy,[15] and underscored the importance of the eucharist, advocating for its more frequent celebration.[16] Anglo-Catholicism stemmed from the Movement.[17]

Dodsworth introduced many ideas of the Oxford Movement to Margaret Street Chapel.[18] He was a popular preacher,[9][18] and the chapel attracted many London Tractarian supporters.[18] Dodsworth later left Margaret Street Chapel in 1837 to join Christ Church, Albany Street and was succeeded by Charles Thornton.[19] Thornton was the cousin of Edward Bouverie Pusey and also a member of the Oxford Movement. He translated a volume within the Library of the Fathers, a collection of English translations of the works of the Church Fathers, but died in June 1839 before its publication.[20]

Frederick Oakeley, a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford who joined the Oxford Movement in early 1839, left the university and became minister of Margaret Street Chapel on 5 July that year.[21] As minister, Oakeley rearranged the interior of the chapel and practiced Anglo-Catholic high liturgy, making it a "showcase of the liturgical practices of the Oxford movement" according to Galloway and Rawll.[22] James Pereiro also wrote that the chapel was an example of the "new spirit of liturgical worship" of Oxford.[18] In 1845, Oakeley wrote a letter to Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London, asserting his right to uphold all Roman doctrine. Facing opposition from the bishop, Oakeley gave up his minister license on 3 June[23] and joined the Roman Catholic Church on 29 October that year.[24] He was succeeded by William Upton Richards, assistant minister of the chapel.[24][b]

Members of the Oxford Movement were concerned with the liturgical use of architecture.[25] During his tenure, Oakeley envisioned rebuilding the chapel according to a proper ecclesiastical style and raised about £3,000.[26] His successor Upton Richards continued the project of rebuilding the chapel.[26] Meanwhile, the Cambridge Camden Society, a society studying Gothic architecture, was seeking to build a church that would embody their architectural ideal and provide orthodox liturgy at the same time.[26] In 1845, Alexander Beresford Hope, a leader of the society, realised that the chapel rebuilding scheme could be combined with the society's goal. His proposal received the approval of Richards and Bishop Blomfield.[26] Upton Richards purchased the sites of the chapel and adjoining houses in 1849 in order to build a new church, and the Ecclesiastical District of All Saints' was soon founded on 30 July 1849.[27][c]

The Cambridge Camden Society took charge of the rebuilding and appointed Sir Stephen Glynne and Beresford Hope overseeing the work.[26] Glynne, however, did not participate in the project, and Hope took sole charge.[26] William Butterfield was selected as the architect.[26] Margaret Street Chapel saw its last sermon preached by Charles Marriott on 7 April 1850 and held its final service the next day.[28] Edward Bouverie Pusey laid the foundation stone of the new church on All Saints' Day, 1850.[29] During the construction of the new church, the congregation worshipped in Great Titchfield Street and, after 1855, at 77a Margaret Street.[28] The total cost of the church, including the site and endowments, was around £70,000; several large individual donations helped to fund it.[30]

Frances Polidori (right) and her two daughters, Maria (left, standing) and Christina Rossetti (left, sitting), in 1855. The following year Maria joined the All Saints Sisters. Christina also worked for the society in the 1860s.

The Oxford Movement also led to the creation of religious orders for women in England,[31] including one at Margaret Street Chapel.[32] Upton Richards encountered Harriet Brownlow Byron in 1848 and encouraged her to live a religious life. Brown later moved to 67 Mortimer Street and created a community for people with disabilities and orphaned children.[33] Upton Richards celebrated Eucharist for the community in 1851,[33] and in 1856 they moved to Margaret Street, across from the new church building.[34] On 5 May 1856 Upton Richards received the professions of religious sisterhood of Byron and two other women, and in August they founded the Society of All Saints (Sisters of the Poor). Byron was installed as the Superior of the society by Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford.[34] Maria, Christina Rossetti's older sister, joined the society as an associate sister in 1856.[35] Christina had associations with the society later in her life,[36] working at the society's House of Charity in Highgate in the 1860s.[37][38] The scholar Elizabeth Ludlow argued that Rossetti's poem "Yet a Little While" contains phrases that describe the interior of All Saints, Margaret Street.[39]

On 28 May 1859, Bishop of London Archibald Campbell Tait consecrated the church building of All Saints.[34] Upton Richards served actively for ten years until he suffered strokes in 1869.[40] The Survey of London describes the congregation at the time "occasional in character", as parishioners were not assigned fixed seats.[41] In 1860 Upton Richards also established a choir school on Margaret Street for the church.[41] He remained the vicar of All Saints until his death on 16 June 1873[40] and was succeeded by Berdmore Compton succeeded on 28 October.[42] To commemorate Upton Richards, the parish devoted the decoration of the north wall of the church, which was designed by Butterfield, painted by Alexander Gibbs, and made by Henry Poole & Sons in 1875–1876.[41]

Architecture

Interior of the church

All Saints marked a new stage in the development of the Gothic Revival in English architecture. The author and columnist Simon Jenkins called All Saints "architecturally England's most celebrated Victorian church",[43] and the architectural historian Simon Thurley listed All Saints among the ten most important buildings in the country.[44]

The design of the church showed Butterfield (in Sir John Betjeman's words) "going on from where the Middle Ages left off" as a neo-Gothic architect.[45] Previous architecture of the 19th-century Gothic Revival had copied medieval buildings. But Butterfield departed considerably from medieval Gothic practice, especially by using new materials like brick. Charles Locke Eastlake, the 19th-century architect and writer, wrote that Butterfield's design was "a bold and magnificent endeavour to shake off the trammels of antiquarian precedent, which had long fettered the progress of the Revival, to create not a new style, but a development of previous styles".[46] The Victorian critic John Ruskin wrote after seeing All Saints: "Having done this, we may do anything; ... and I believe it to be possible for us, not only to equal, but far to surpass, in some respects, any Gothic yet seen in Northern countries."[47]

Butterfield's use of building materials was innovative. All Saints is built of brick, in contrast to Gothic Revival churches of the 1840s, typically built of grey Kentish ragstone.[43] At All Saints, Butterfield felt a mission to "give dignity to brick",[48] and the quality of the brick he chose made it more expensive than stone.[46] The exterior of All Saints employs red brick, heavily banded and patterned with black brick, with bands of stone and carved elements in the gate, the church wall and spire. Decoration is therefore built into the structure, making All Saints the first example of 'structural polychromy' in London.[49]

All Saints is particularly celebrated for its interior decoration. Every surface is richly patterned or decorated; the floor in diaper patterned tiles, wall surfaces in geometrical patterned brick, tile, and marble, as well as tiles with painted decoration, large friezes executed in painted tiles, a painted ceiling, and painted and gilded timberwork behind the altar. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner described the interior as "dazzling, though in an eminently High Victorian ostentatiousness or obtrusiveness. ... No part of the walls is left undecorated. From everywhere the praise of the Lord is drummed into you."[50]

The rear of the chancel features a series of paintings on gilded boards, within a delicately carved brightly patterned gothic screen, the work of Ninian Comper and a restoration of earlier work by William Dyce. The decoration of the Lady Chapel is also by Comper. The north wall is dominated by a large ceramic tile frieze designed by Butterfield, painted by Alexander Gibbs, and fired by Henry Poole and Sons, installed in 1873. It depicts a variety of scenes from the Old Testament, a central Nativity scene and depictions of Early Church Fathers.[51]

The stained-glass windows are limited in All Saints due to the density of buildings around the church. The original windows were designed by Alfred Gérente (1821–1868) but his work was not held in high regard and was subsequently replaced. The large west window, which was originally fitted with glass by Gerente in 1853–58, was replaced in 1877 with a design by Alexander Gibbs based on the Tree of Jesse window in Wells Cathedral. The glass in the clerestory dates from 1853 and is the work of Michael O'Connor, who also designed the east window of the south chancel aisle which depicts Christ in Majesty with St Edward Martyr and St Augustine.[52]

The baptistery in the south-west corner of the church is noted for its marble tiling which features an image of the Pelican in her Piety in the ceiling tiles, a symbol of the fall and redemption of man.[53]

  • The Nativity Scene in the tiled frieze
    The Nativity Scene in the tiled frieze
  • Baptistery tiling
    Baptistery tiling

The reredos, by Butterfield, was moved to St Catherine's Church, Wickford, at some time during the 20th century.[54]

Anglo-Catholicism

The church's style of worship is Anglo-Catholic, "the Catholic faith as taught by the Church of England", offering members and visitors a traditional style of liturgy, as advocated by the Oxford Movement of the mid-nineteenth century, including ritual, choir and organ music, vestments and incense.

As a traditional Anglo-Catholic parish, All Saints passed a resolution under the House of Bishops' Declaration on 26 November 2016 (affirmed on 13 July 2020[55]) to ask that episcopal and priestly sacramental ministry in the parish be exercised by male bishops at whose consecration a male bishop presided and who stand in the historic, apostolic succession of bishops so ordained, and by male priests ordained by such bishops.[56] It receives alternative episcopal oversight from the Bishop of Fulham (since 2013, Jonathan Baker).

Incumbents

Music

A choir school was established at the church in 1843, which provided music for daily choral services. The choir was widely recognised for its excellence and choristers sang at the Coronations of Edward VII (1902), George V (1911), George VI (1937) and Elizabeth II (1953) as well as at Victoria's Jubilees (1887 and 1897). Amongst its alumni is Laurence Olivier. The school closed in 1968,[57] at which point the boys' voices were replaced by adult sopranos. The survival of the choir school had been discussed many years earlier. Writing to parishioners in 1894, the vicar lamented that the changing demography of the area meant that there were now few children left in the parish, and that the number of wealthy patrons in the congregation had decreased as they moved further west.[58]

The present-day choir maintains the exacting standards of its predecessors.

The repertoire for choir and organ stretches from before the Renaissance to the 21st century and includes several pieces commissioned for the church, most famously Walter Vale's arrangement of Rachmaninoff's Liturgy of St John Chrysostom and All-Night Vigil for Western-Rite Mass and Evensong respectively. Rachmaninoff heard Vale's adaptations during his two visits to the church, in 1915 and 1923, and pronounced his approval of them. They are still sung on Palm Sunday.

All Saints' organ is a superb four-manual Harrison and Harrison instrument with 65 speaking stops, built in 1910 to a specification drawn up by Walter Vale. It retains the best of the pipework of its predecessor, the original and considerably smaller Hill organ. Though as big as those found in most cathedrals, it is perfectly tailored to All Saints' smaller dimensions – powerful, but not excessively so, sounding intimate when played quietly, and monumental when loud. Harrison rebuilt it in 1957, replacing the tubular pneumatic action with electro-pneumatic. Electrical blowers replaced the hydraulic blowing plant.

The tonal changes made to 10 stops in 1957 – like those made to many other organs at that time – altered the tone of the instrument, to a very limited extent, to a more 'classical' sound. Therefore, when the organ next required major restoration work, the decision was taken to try to restore the sound nearer to that of 1910: to return it to an 'Edwardian Romantic' organ. The completed restoration was celebrated with two inauguration concerts in March 2003.

Organists have included Richard Redhead, the first organist and remembered today as the composer of Rock of Ages and Bright the Vision, Walter Vale (1907–1939), William Lloyd Webber (1939–1948), John Birch (1953–58), Michael Fleming (1958–68) and Harry Bramma (1989–2004), many of whom wrote music for use at All Saints and beyond.

Directors of Music (selected)

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Sometimes written as All Saints'.
  2. ^ The last name of William is "Upton Richards".
  3. ^ According to Galloway and Rawll, Upton Richards further collected £9,000 for the purchase.[27] Charles Eastlake wrote in 1872 that the total cost for the grounds was £14,500.[26]

References

  1. ^ Betjeman, John (2011). Betjeman's Best British Churches (New ed.). London: Collins. p. 418. ISBN 978-0-00-741567-0.
  2. ^ Watkin, David (1979). English Architecture. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 165. ISBN 0-500-20171-4.
  3. ^ Temple & Thom 2017, pp. 730–731.
  4. ^ a b c d Temple & Thom 2017, p. 731.
  5. ^ Galloway & Rawll 1988, p. 5.
  6. ^ Whitworth 1891, p. 34.
  7. ^ Galloway & Rawll 1988, p. 6.
  8. ^ Whitworth 1891, p. 35.
  9. ^ a b Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 15 1888, p. 178.
  10. ^ Carter 2017, p. 39.
  11. ^ a b Encyclopedia Britannica 2020.
  12. ^ Nockles 2017, p. 81.
  13. ^ Gilley 2017.
  14. ^ Cooper 2017, p. 137.
  15. ^ a b Cooper 2017, p. 140.
  16. ^ Cooper 2017, pp. 142–143.
  17. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica 2021.
  18. ^ a b c d Pereiro 2017, p. 120.
  19. ^ Whitworth 1891, p. 31.
  20. ^ Pfaff 1973, p. 335.
  21. ^ Galloway & Rawll 1988, pp. 2–5.
  22. ^ Galloway & Rawll 1988, pp. 6, 13.
  23. ^ Galloway & Rawll 1988, pp. 2–8.
  24. ^ a b Galloway & Rawll 1988, p. 13.
  25. ^ Doll 2017, p. 367.
  26. ^ a b c d e f g h Eastlake 1872, p. 251.
  27. ^ a b Galloway & Rawll 1988, p. 14.
  28. ^ a b Galloway & Rawll 1988, pp. 15–16.
  29. ^ Whitworth 1891, p. 63.
  30. ^ Eastlake 1872, p. 252.
  31. ^ Engelhardt 2017, p. 387.
  32. ^ Engelhardt 2017, p. 393.
  33. ^ a b Galloway & Rawll 1988, p. 16.
  34. ^ a b c Mayhew 1987, p. 30.
  35. ^ Engelhardt 2017, p. 395.
  36. ^ Thomas 1931, p. 35.
  37. ^ Bell 1898, p. 54.
  38. ^ Gill 2013, p. 21.
  39. ^ Ludlow 2017, pp. 434–435.
  40. ^ a b Galloway & Rawll 1988, pp. 20–21.
  41. ^ a b c Temple & Thom 2017, p. 736.
  42. ^ Galloway & Rawll 1988, p. 29.
  43. ^ a b Jenkins, Simon (2009). England's Thousand Best Churches. London: Penguin Books. pp. 479–480. ISBN 978-0-141-03930-5.
  44. ^ Thurley, Simon (5 January 2014), "The ten most important buildings in England", The Daily Telegraph, retrieved 24 April 2014
  45. ^ Betjeman, John (1970). A Pictorial History of English Architecture. London: George Rainbird. p. 83. ISBN 0-7195-2640-X.
  46. ^ a b Eastlake 1872, pp. 251–253.
  47. ^ Ruskin, John (2007). The Stones of Venice, Volume III: The Fall. New York: Cosimo. p. 196. ISBN 978-1-60206-703-5.
  48. ^ All Saints, Margaret Street. Norwich: Jarrold. 2005. p. 6.
  49. ^ Hitchcock, Henry Russell (1977). Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Pelican History of Art. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 247–248. ISBN 0-14-056115-3.
  50. ^ Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). The Buildings of England: London 2, except the cities of London and Westminster. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 327. ISBN 0-14-071006-X.
  51. ^ "Tiling". All Saints Margaret Street website. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  52. ^ "Stained Glass Windows". All Saints Margaret Street website. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  53. ^ "Inside the Church". All saints Margaret Street website. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  54. ^ Historic England. "Church of St Catherine (Grade II) (1338415)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  55. ^ "Pastoral Letter from the Bishops" (PDF). ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET. 22 July 2020. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  56. ^ "Information Pack for discussionson the Resolution: ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET RESOLUTION" (PDF). ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET. 29 November 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  57. ^ Crutchley, Leigh (5 November 1968). "Death of a Choir School: All Saints Margaret Street London 1968". BBC Radio. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  58. ^ "All Saints', Margaret Street choir school". The Guardian. 24 October 1894. p. 1650 – via newspapers.com.
  59. ^ Love, James (1841) Scottish Church Music: its Composers and Sources. Edinburgh: Blackwood; p. 233
  60. ^ John Williams: obituary[dead link] The Independent
  61. ^ "The Choir". All Saints Margaret Street website. Retrieved 26 May 2012.

Sources

Further reading

  • Almedingen, E. M. (1945) Dom Bernard Clements: a portrait. London: John Lane

51°31′02.10″N 00°08′20.64″W / 51.5172500°N 0.1390667°W / 51.5172500; -0.1390667

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