St James's Church, Piccadilly

St James's Church, Piccadilly
The Church in 2011
51°30′31″N 0°8′12″W / 51.50861°N 0.13667°W / 51.50861; -0.13667Coordinates: 51°30′31″N 0°8′12″W / 51.50861°N 0.13667°W / 51.50861; -0.13667
Location Piccadilly, London
Country England
Denomination Church of England
Churchmanship Liberal
Website www.sjp.org.uk
History
Dedicated 13 July 1684
Architecture
Heritage designation Grade I
Architect(s) Christopher Wren
Administration
Diocese Diocese of London
Clergy
Rector The Revd Lucy Winkett
Curate(s) The Revd Lindsay Meader
NSM(s) The Revd Hugh Valentine
The Revd Ivan Khovacs
Laity
Churchwarden(s) Deborah Colvin and Trevor Lines
View looking southeast from the tower, showing many of the landmarks of London.

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, United Kingdom. The church was designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren.

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.

Present

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." 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), a 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.


Concerts

Concerts are regularly held in the church.[1] Concerts have included performances by popular contemporary musicians such as R.E.M.,[2] the folk musician Laura Marling as part of her "church tour",[3] the collegiate Indian-American music group Penn Masala [4] and Devin Townsend on his 2015 UK acoustic tour.[5]

Outdoor art space

Replica section of the Israeli Security Wall, built in the church grounds, as part of the international protest against the Israeli wall.

Hauser & Wirth, a contemporary art gallery, is running a programme of outdoor sculpture exhibitions in Southwood Garden in the grounds of the church. The first exhibition was of work by the Swiss sculptor Hans Josephsohn, running from September 2009 to January 2010.[6] Southwood Garden was created in the churchyard by Viscount Southwood after World War II as a garden of remembrance, "to commemorate the courage and fortitude of the people of London," and was opened by Queen Mary in 1946.[7]

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.

Market

The Piccadilly Market was established in 1981 and operates six days a week in the courtyard of St James's Church. Monday and Tuesday: Food Market, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm. Wednesday – Saturday: Arts and Craft Market, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm.

History

Interior circa 1806
The Church interior on Easter Sunday 2016

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 1940, during the Second World War. Works of restoration were designed by Sir Albert Richardson and carried out by Rattee and Kett.[8]

Notable vicars and other staff

Notable baptisms

St James's in 1815

Notable weddings

Notable burials

Sources

  • London Architecture, written by Marianne Butler, published in 2004 by Metro Publications, ISBN 1-902910-18-4

See also

References

  1. ↑ Corinthian Chamber Orchestra One of the groups which gives concerts in the church Archived 11 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ Evening Concerts Website detailing REM performance.
  3. ↑ Laura Marling unveils church tour details. NME reveals details of Laura Marling's church tour.
  4. ↑ [Adele supporting Raul Midon Sept 2006 http://ct.broadwayworld.com/printcolumn.php?id=188796 "Penn Masala to Perform at Jorgensen, 12/3"] Check |url= value (help). BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  5. ↑ An Evening with Devin Townsend
  6. ↑ "Hauser & Wirth / St James's Church, Piccadilly". Glass Magazine. 2009-09-01. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  7. ↑ "The Churchyard". The Survey of London: about St James's Church Piccadilly. 2008. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  8. ↑ "The Building - St James's Church Piccadilly London". Sjp.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
  9. ↑ "England birth and christenings". familysearch.org. Retrieved 2015-04-21.
  10. ↑ Mayer, Dorothy Moulton. (1972) Angelica Kauffmann, R.A. 1741–1807. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe. pp. 57–63. ISBN 0900675683
  11. ↑ Robinson, John Robert (1895). 'Old Q': A Memoir of William Douglas, Fourth Duke of Queensberry, K.T., One of 'the Fathers of the Turf,' with a Full Account of His Celebrated Matches and Wagers, Etc (2nd ed.). London: Samson Low, Marston and Company, Limited. p. 249. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
  12. ↑ Barbara Brandon Schnorrenberg, "Montagu, Elizabeth (1718–1800)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds). Oxford: OUP, 2004.
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