The church of Emmanuel, Church Road, Northwood, was founded in 1896 by the Vicar of Holy Trinity, Northwood. Initially it was an iron church, but a permanent building was constructed in 1904, designed by Sir Frank Elgood.
From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 142-144.
The London Diocesan Home Mission established an iron church in Uxbridge Road circa 1874. The permanent church was constructed in 1890, designed by J. Lee.
From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 50-52.
Saint Philip and Saint James was founded in 1862 by the vicar of Twickenham, who became the patron. A district was created out of Holy Trinity parish, but was later diminished by the formation of Saint Augustine's parish. The church was designed by F.H. Pownall in the Early English style.
From: 'Twickenham: Churches', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962), pp. 157-161.
The parish of Saint Luke was created in 1904 from parts of the parishes of Saint Mary's and Saint Paul's. The patronage was held by subscribers who had paid for the construction of the church, before passing to the Church Patronage Society. The church building was constructed in 1905, while a hall was added in 1937. The parish merged with Saint Paul's in 1985, becoming Saint Paul with Saint Luke, and the church was demolished in 2006.
From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6: Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey with Highgate (1980), pp. 82-86.
In 1904 a church extension scheme was put in place to serve the expanding suburbs of London. One of the first mission churches to be set up in this scheme was St Peter, north Harrow. A temporary church was first dedicateed in 1907, it stood on a site fronting Sumner Road and Colbeck Road. It was run as a mission church of St Mary's, Harrow by London Diocesan Home Missionaries until a permanent building was constructed in 1913 and a separate parish was created. The church was built by G. H Fellows Prynne and consisted of a chancel, nave, aisles, transepts, north-east chapel, baptisery and bell turret.
During the early 1980's church attendance declined and the parishes of Christ Church and St Peter's amalgamated to become The Parish of Christ Church, Roxeth and St Peter, Harrow.
Source: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner. (1971) pp 257-260.
The church of Saint Mary the Virgin originated as a mission started by Marlborough College, Wiltshire, in 1881. The church was consecrated in 1887, largely paid for by the College. In 1888 a consoldiated chapelry, taken from the parishes of All Hallows, Holy Trinity, and Saint Paul, was created. The Bishop of London was patron. The church building was designed by J. E. K. Cutts in the Early English style. The church ran mission halls in Mitchley Road, Stoneleigh South, Kemble Road and Lansdowne Road.
From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 348-355.
All Hallows, North Greenford was founded in 1931 by The London Diocesan Home Mission. It was the fourth church to be built by the Forty Five Churches Fund for the Greater London area. The church was designed by C A Farey and opened in 1940. All Hallows became a separate parish in 1949.
From: 'Greenford: Churches', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962), pp. 216-218.
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
An assignment of term, or assignment to attend the inheritance, was an assignment of the remaining term of years in a mortgage to a trustee after the mortgage itself has been redeemed. An assignment of a lease is the transfer of the rights laid out in the lease to another party, usually for a consideration (a sum of money).
Abstract of title is a summary of prior ownership of a property, drawn up by solicitors. Such an abstract may go back several hundred years or just a few months, and was usually drawn up just prior to a sale.
Lease and release was the most common method of conveying freehold property from the later seventeenth century onwards, before the introduction of the modern conveyance in the late nineteenth century. The lease was granted for a year (sometimes six months), then on the following day the lessor released their right of ownership in return for the consideration (the thing for which land was transferred from one party to another, usually, of course, a sum of money).
Source: British Records Association Guidelines 3: How to interpret deeds (available online).
Several of the documents mention Sir W S Prideaux, possibly Sir Walter Sherburne Prideaux, solicitor of Prideaux and Sons, Goldsmith's Hall. Presumably Prideaux was acting in a professional capacity in these property transactions.
These papers refer to the estates of Frederick St John (1732-1787), 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke.
Francis Tyssen (d 1699) bought up manors in Hackney from 1697 onwards. He left his estates to his son Francis (d 1710) who in turn left them to his son Francis (d 1717). The latter Francis married Rachel, daughter of neighbouring landowner Richard de Beauvoir. His estates were left to his posthumous son Francis John Tyssen, who left the estates were left to his daughter Mary Tyssen. Her grandson William George Daniel (1801-55) took the surname Daniel-Tyssen. He married Amelia Amhurst. Their son William Amhurst Tyssen (1835-1909) adopted the surname Tyssen-Amherst in 1852, changing it to Tyssen-Amherst in 1877. His estates included 9488 acres at Didlington Hall, Norfolk, as well as the Hackney estates in London.
Richard de Beauvoir purchased the Manor of Hoxton or Balmes in 1687. He died in 1708 leaving the land to his son Osmond, who in turn left the manor to his son Reverend Peter de Beauvoir, who was the last sinecure rector of Hackney. He died in 1821, and the estate passed to Richard Benyon of Englefield House, Berkshire, the grandson of Francis John Tyssen's sister Mary Benyon, and the great-grandson of Richard de Beauvoir's daughter Rachel and her husband Francis Tyssen. Richard adopted the surname Benyon de Beauvoir. While in his ownership the estate was developed by William Rhodes into the area still known as De Beauvoir Town.
Information from 'Hackney: Manors', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 10: Hackney (1995), pp. 75-91.
The barony of Calthorpe originated in Sir Henry Gough, who married Barbara, daughter and heir of Reynolds Calthorpe of Elvetham. Henry Gough took the surname Calthorpe in 1796 when he was created Baron Calthorpe. He was succeeded by his sons Charles Gough-Calthorpe, 2nd Baron Calthorpe (1786-1807), George Gough-Calthorpe, 3rd Baron Calthorpe (1787-1851) and Frederick Gough-Calthorpe, 4th Baron Calthorpe (1790-1868).
Frederick was succeeded by 3 of his sons: Frederick Henry William Gough-Calthorpe, 5th Baron Calthorpe (1826-1893), Augustus Cholmondeley Gough-Calthorpe, 6th Baron Calthorpe (1829-1910) and Sir Somerset John Gough-Calthorpe, 7th Baron Calthorpe (1831-1912). Sir Somerset was followed by his son Somerset Frederick Gough-Calthorpe, 8th Baron Calthorpe (1862-1940). The title became extinct in 1997 on the death of the 10th Baron.
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
Source: British Records Association Guidelines 3: How to interpret deeds (available online).
The writer and diarist John Evelyn (1620-1706) came from a landed estate at Wotton in Surrey, although as a younger son he did not expect to inherit the family lands. In 1647 he married Mary Browne, sole heir of Sir Richard Browne, and through this marriage gained Sayes Court in Deptford with surrounding lands (as confirmed by a grant from Charles II). Evelyn had a stong interest in horticulture and created a famous garden at Sayes Court. However, Evelyn's elder brother died and he did inherit the Surrey estates, moving there and letting out the house at Deptford. His most famous tenant was Peter the Great, czar of Russia, who was visiting Deptford to study shipbuilding and whose drunken revelries caused damage to the gardens. The estate remained in the Evelyn family, although the manor house was torn down in 1728 and a workhouse and the Admiralty Victualling Yard were built on the site. In 1884 W J Evelyn granted some land to the London County Council to create a public open space.
No historical information has been found for the Hagen family.
The Hodson family appear to have been based in Kent.
This small group of documents shows some of the provision made by Benjamin Smith, who died in 1861, for his daughters Barbara (1827-1891) and Anne Leigh Smith; Barbara married Dr Eugene Bodichon in 1857. She was a tireless worker in improving the position of women, especially in education. Among her friends were Emily Davies and Elizabeth Garrett.
The Manor of Hampstead was sold in 1707 to Sir William Langhorne of Charlton, Kent, an East India merchant. The manor passed to his nephew William Langhorne Games, with 14 remainders. On Games's death in 1732 the manor passed to the 14th tenant in tail, Margaret, widow of Joseph Maryon and a Langhorne descendant. Her son John Maryon (died 1760) left the manor to his niece Margaretta Maria Weller (died 1777) and her daughter Jane, widow of General Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson. Their son Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson (died 1821) left the manor to his son, also Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, who died childless in 1869. The manor passed to his brother Sir John Maryon Wilson, and then to John's son Sir Spencer Maryon Wilson (died 1897), and to his son Sir Spencer Pocklington Maryon Maryon-Wilson, who died in 1944. By this time the manorial rights had lapsed. The lands were inherited by Sir Spencer's brother, Canon Sir George Percy Maryon-Wilson. In 1978 the baronetcy became extinct on the death of their cousin Sir Hubert Guy Maryon Maryon-Wilson, and the estate passed to Sir Spencer's grandson Shane Hugh Maryon Gough.
From: 'Hampstead: Manor and Other Estates', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9: Hampstead, Paddington (1989), pp. 91-111 (available online).
The Manor of Charlton was sold to the Langhorne family some time after 1659. It subsequently followed the same succession as the Manor of Hampstead, belonging to the Games family, then the Maryons and Maryon-Wilsons.
From: 'Blackheath and Charlton', Old and New London: Volume 6 (1878), pp. 224-236 (available online).
The Fitzjohns Estate in Essex was sold by Sir Spencer Maryon-Wilson in 1900.
The Manor of Amersham was conveyed to William Drake, owner of the Amersham mansion house Shardeloes, in 1637. Drake was made a baronet in 1641. The baronetcy expired on his death, childless, in 1669; while the estates passed to his nephew Sir William Drake. The name Tyrwhitt derives from Thomas Drake, a younger son who had adopted the name Tyrwhitt in 1776. On the 1796 death of his older brother without children, Thomas inherited the manor and resumed the name of Drake. On his death in 1810 the property passed to his son Thomas Tyrwhitt-Drake. The family owned the manor until the Second World War.
Information from: 'The hundred of Burnham: Amersham', A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 3 (1925), pp. 141-155 (available online).
The earliest deed in this collection is a grant in fee farm from Francis, Earl of Bedford to John Ward, in 1636/7, of a piece of land abutting north on Long Acre and south on developed and was let as two separate sites-that which became 36 Long Acre, and the site which backed on to it in Hart Street.
Since the series of deeds is by no means complete, there being virtually no title deeds after the early 18th century, the later descent of the property is uncertain. Research in the Middlesex Deeds Register might establish the identity of more recent owners. Most, but not all the documents have been stamped 'Land Registry, London No.252132, Registd 30 Jun. 1921.' Three documents, apparently unrelated to the remainder, are listed at the end.
John Evelyn Ansell (1860-1936) was Chief Clerk of the Middlesex Deeds Registry, later the Middlesex Deeds Department of the Land Registry Office, from 1889, when Lord Truro was Registrar, until c 1921. Ansell's report of 1891 (Ref. F/ANS/014) gives a detailed picture of the operation and staffing of the Registry at that date. From the evidence in F/ANS/001, 002, 003/1 and 009 it appears that he was concerned in the 'Office of Universal Knowledge' set up by Lord Truro before 1889.
Samuel Augustus Barnett was born in Bristol in 1844 and after a period at Wadham College, Oxford, he became a curate at St. Mary's, Bryanston Square in 1867. During the next six years, in contact with Octavia Hill and the Charity Organisation Society, he discovered his capacity for social work. His marriage in 1873 to a helper of Miss Hill, Miss Henrietta Octavia Rowland, coincided with his acceptance of the parish of St. Jude, Whitechapel. At Whitechapel, both threw themselves into social work, organising flower shows, art shows, and the Children's Country Holiday Fund, and helping such differing groups as pupil teachers, young servant girls, and convalescents.
Much of this work received great impetus with the founding of Toynbee Hall in 1883-1884 and the settlement in the parish of up to twenty young graduates intent on curing the social ailments of Whitechapel. Although much involved in the University Extension Scheme, and Warden and later President of Toynbee Hall, Barnett did not concentrate solely on these two aspects of social reform. The majority of his activities were in fact conceived before the founding of Toynbee Hall.
As a Guardian of the Poor and as a School Manager, Barnett had considerable local influence. This influence was widened by his evidence to several parliamentary committees and by the appointment of his wife to serve on the Departmental Committee to inquire into the condition of Poor Law Schools in 1894.
Barnett extended his activities to Bristol, where he was canon and later sub-dean from 1906 to his death in 1913. However, in the latter period of his life he was far more involved in meditation than in social work. In these years his influence worked through his friendship with the Webbs, Lord Courtney, Sir John Gorst, Cyril Jackson, Harold and J.A. Spender and the many past residents at Toynbee Hall.
Throughout their married life, the Barnetts went abroad frequently. They did this on the one hand to relieve the intense strain of life in Whitechapel and on the other hand because of their belief in the value of travel to the mind. When they did travel, they involved themselves in the social work of the country in which they found themselves and, on occasion, they shared the joys of travel with over 100 people from East London. Another means of relieving the strain of Whitechapel was frequent retreat to their cottage in Spaniards Row, Hampstead. Around their life in the suburbs they attracted many dependants, firstly in the form of unhappy servant girls at Harrow Cottage, secondly convalescents at Erskine House, Hampstead, and thirdly Henrietta Barnett's ward, Dorothy Noel Woods, who died in 1901.
From Hampstead, Mrs Barnett drew her greatest strength. Whilst the Canon became more meditative, she continued her life of action by the promotion and foundation of the Hampstead Garden Suburb in the years following 1903. Although the Barnetts had no children, his brother had four, one of whom died in childhood. His brother had continued the family business in Bristol and took an active part in local politics as a Liberal councillor. His death in 1908 was a severe shock to the Canon who, however, continued writing his letters to his sister-in-law, his niece Mary Barnett, and his two nephews. The eldest nephew, S.H.G. Barnett, went into engineering, and the other, Stephen, emigrated to New Zealand as a farmer.
Willoughby Hyett Dickinson was born in 1859 at Stroud, Gloucestershire. He was knighted in 1918 and became a peer in 1930, taking the title Lord Dickinson of Painswick, where he had his family home.
In 1899 Dickinson became an Independent London County Council member for Wandsworth; his party came to be known as the Progressive Party. He was Deputy Chairman of the LCC 1892 to 1896, and Chairman in 1899. After serving as an alderman for a number of years he finally left the Council in 1907. Dickinson's career as an MP lasted from 1906 until 1918, for which period he was the Liberal member for North St Pancras; he joined the Labour Party in 1930.
Andrew Brown Donaldson was born in 1838, the second son of William Leverton Donaldson. He studied art at both the Royal Academy School and in Rome. Although working mainly in London, he undertook frequent painting trips to Europe. His works were exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Society of Painters, and also in numerous provincial exhibitions.
In June 1872 Donaldson married Agnes Emily Twining, the youngest daughter of the tea merchant, Richard Twining.
Sir (Leonard) David Gammans (1895-1957) served with the RFA in France, 1914-1918. He was in the Colonial Service in Malaya, 1920-1934 and attached to the British Embassy in Tokyo, 1926-1928. In 1930 he toured in India, Europe and America and, on retiring from the Colonial Service, lectured in the U.S.A. and Canada; he was Director and Secretary of the Land Settlement Association, 1934-1939. He was the Unionist MP for Hornsey from 1941 to his death, being Assistant Postmaster-General from 1951-1955, and a member of Parliamentary Delegations to the West Indies, 1944, Serawak, 1946, and Ceylon, 1949. He was created a baronet in 1955.
Sir David Gammans's records were deposited by his widow, Lady (Ann Muriel) Gammans, whom he married in 1917; Lady Gammans was Conservative M.P. for Hornsey from 1957 until 1966.
John MacGregor was a barrister and philanthropist with the nickname 'Rob Roy'. He was active in a number of good causes, sitting on the committees of the Ragged School Union, the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Reformatory and Refuge Union and the Protestant Alliance. In 1851 he founded the Shoe Black Brigade, and in 1853 the founded the Open Air Mission, becoming an open-air preacher himself. In 1854, with long-time associate Lord Shaftesbury, he founded the Pure Literature Society. He died in 1892.
Information from The Times, Friday, Jul 22, 1892; pg. 8; Issue 33697; col B.
The certificates relate to ceremonies in St Mary Lambeth, St Clement Danes, St Luke Old Street, St Leonard Shoreditch and Christ Church Hoxton.
Trades mentioned in the documents include carver, haberdasher, carman, fruiterer and loriner. Loriners made bits and bridles for horses.
George Heynes Radford was born in Plymouth in 1851 and educated at London University. By profession a solicitor, he was a member of the London County Council 1895-1917. He was knighted 1916 and died 5 Oct 1917. He lived for much of his life at Chiswick House, Ditton Hill, Surrey in which county he was also a J.P.
The Rivington family were booksellers, based at Saint Paul's Churchyard, City of London.
Thames watermen and other groups of river tradesmen had voluntarily formed associations of River Fencibles in 1798, the same year that the Corps of Sea Fencibles was established as a coastal home guard. Fencibles were service personnel liable only for defensive service, an early version of the Home Guard.
The River Fencibles were officially established in 1803, and by 1804 had uniformed commissioned officers. Members of the London Corps in small boats escorted the barge carrying the body of Nelson along the Thames during his state funeral in 1806. The force was disbanded in 1813.
Herbert Willmott, born in 1869, was Chief Engineer and Secretary to the Governor of the United Provinces, India, until his retirement in 1923. He and his wife then lived in Brittany, paying visits to London and to Switzerland, until in 1928 they settled in Earls Court, Kensington. With his wife's sister and brother-in-law, they toured Europe from December 1937 until September 1939, when obliged to return to England by the outbreak of war. Back in Kensington, he served as an Air Raid Warden. He died in 1951. His interests included the Church, the League of Nations Union, the Charity Organisation Society, and the theatre.
The North-West London Hospital (NWLH) was opened in 1878 in Kentish Town Road, founded by the Misses Learmonth for the benefit of the working classes of this densely populated area. It was unusual, for its time, in offering a designated childrens' ward. A new wing was added six years later, but by 1890 the hospital was facing serious financial difficulties. Finally, in 1907, when work on the new building of the Hampstead General Hospital (formerly Hampstead Home Hospital and Nursing Institute) was in jeopardy owing to lack of funds, the King's Fund suggested that these two hospitals merge, and on that condition provided funds for the project. Thereafter the in-patients were treated in the new Hampstead General on Haverstock Hill and outpatients at the Camden site. In 1912 a new outpatients department was built at Bayham Street, in the house in which Charles Dickens had lived as a boy, replacing the NWLH once and for all. However, the name lived on in the official title of the joint institution "The Hampstead General and North-West London Hospital" until 1948.
All surviving record series from the merged Hampstead General Hospital continue from record series of the Hampstead Home Hospital and Nursing Institute; records in this collection therefore survive solely from the NWLH up to 1908.
The Royal Free Hospital was founded in 1828 in Greville St, Hatton Garden, London, by William Marsden, a young surgeon from Yorkshire. He found a young girl dying on the steps of St Andrew's Church, Holborn, because she could not afford admission to hospital and the only other way for the poor to obtain treatment was to be personally recommended by someone who subscribed to that hospital. The experience touched Marsden so much that he decided to open a hospital which would be free to all: poverty and sickness would be the only passports required. The hospital was originally called the "London General Institution for the Gratuitous Cure of Malignant Diseases." It was initially just a dispensary, with no in-patient beds, and in 1832 was the only London hospital to treat victims of the cholera epidemic. Soon afterwards the name was changed to the London Free Hospital, and in 1837 when Queen Victoria became patron the name was changed to the Royal Free Hospital. In 1844 the Royal Free moved to larger premises, a former army barracks in Grays' Inn Road.
In 1877 the Royal Free became a teaching hospital when it allowed female medical students from the London School of Medicine for Women (founded 1874) to receive clinical instruction on the wards. In 1889 the School of Nursing was started. Development had been ongoing since the move to Grays' Inn Road, and the new front building was opened in 1895, the same year that the Royal Free became the first hospital to appoint an almoner, forerunner of the medical social worker. During World War One the new outpatient block was requisitioned as an officers ward, and many staff and students went abroad to treat soldiers. After the war, it became necessary to equip the hospital in line with advances in medicine to include a maternity wing, children's ward, nurses' home and dental clinic. Given the general poverty in England at this time, and the fact that the hospital was still dependent on voluntary contributions, much of this was made possible by the generosity of three men, Lord Riddell, Alfred Langton and Sir Albert Levy, who saved the hospital from near-closure.
For much of World War Two the hospital escaped serious damage, but in 1944 it was hit by a flying bomb. Although there were not many casualties, extensive damage resulted and only 4 beds remained useable immediately afterwards. This led to a desperate need for more beds. The 1944 Goodenough report on the future of medical education then recommended that the Royal Free move to north London, because there were too many teaching hospitals in central London when most Londoners were now living in the suburbs; also the Royal Free was too small to provide enough beds to teach students satisfactorily, but there was no room in central London for it to expand. In 1947, the Dean of LSMW, Katharine Lloyd-Williams, suggested the site of the North-Western Fever Hospital in Lawn Road, Hampstead as an ideal location for the new Royal Free.
On the inception of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, the Royal Free formed a group with this and other smaller hospitals in order to provide enough beds for student teaching. These others were the Childrens' Hospital Hampstead, the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, the Hampstead General and the London Fever Hospital. Between 1948 and 1958 there was much debate about whether The Royal Free should stay in central London or move to Hampstead, but in 1958 the first plans for the Royal Free on its present site in Pond Street, Hampstead were produced. Although the hospital scheme was unpopular with local residents construction finally began in 1968, the same year that Coppetts Wood and New End Hospital joined the group. Queen Mary's Maternity Home joined in 1972. The new Royal Free was the most modern hospital in Europe, and the first to be designed with the aid of a computer. In 1974 it opened to its first patient, a London taxi driver, and in 1978, the 150th anniversary of hospital's foundation, it was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.
The Hospital was administered by a Committee of Management, which reported to the Court of Governors. Day-to-day matters were dealt with by the Weekly Board. After the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948, the Hospital was part of the Royal Free Group, with the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in Euston Road, the London Fever Hospital, Islington, (which became the Liverpool Road Branch of the RFH), the North-Western Fever Hospital, Hampstead (which became the Lawn Road Branch of the RFH), the Childrens' Hospital Hampstead, and the Hampstead General. The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital left the Group in 1962, and the Coppetts Wood and New End Hospitals joined in 1968. Internal management of the RFH was in the hands of the Royal Free Hospital Committee, which was responsible to the Board for day-to-day administration.
The Mitcham Congregational Church was founded in 1818. In 1903 it belonged to the Surrey Congregational Union Eastern District and had 30 members. This had risen to 50 in 1957; however, the Church is not listed in the 1971 Congregational Year Book and it is possible that it had closed or merged with another chapel by this date.
Dulwich Grove Congregational Church was founded in 1879. It belonged to the London Congregational Union South East District. In 1972, when the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches merged, it became Dulwich Grove United Reformed Church.
Maze Hill Congregational Church, Greenwich, was founded in 1786. In 1903 it came under the Kent Association and County Missionary Society Metropolitan District and had 100 members. By 1957 membership had fallen to 15 and the church was sharing a minister with Rothbury Hall Church. By 1971 Maze Hill had united with the local Methodist Church.
The Beckenham Congregational Church was founded in 1878. It was situated on Crescent Road. In 1903 it was part of the Kent Association and County Missionary Society Metropolitan District, and had 206 members. In 1972, when the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches merged, it became Beckenham United Reformed Church.
New Court, one of the earliest nonconformist chapels in London, dates from 1662 when under the Act of Uniformity Doctor Thomas Manton was ejected from the church of Saint Paul's, Covent Garden. He established himself as a nonconformist minister in a chapel built for him in Bridges Street in the same parish. The church remained there until 1682 when as a result of the Five Mile Act it was forced to close due to the imprisonment of its minister, Richard Baxter. James II's Declaration of Indulgence in 1687 enabled another nonconformist minister, Daniel Burgess, to re-open the chapel and after nine years the congregation moved to more substantial premises in Russell Court, Drury Lane, to a building between an old burial ground and the theatre.
On the expiry of the lease in 1705 another move was necessary and a new building was erected in New Court, Carey Street. The congregation remained there for over a hundred and fifty years and as a result the chapel thereafter was known as New Court Chapel.
While at Carey Street the chapel was attacked by a mob supporting Doctor Sachaverell, a high church fanatic who had preached a libellous sermon against dissenters, and this caused it to close for a short time. It was also during this period that New Court was specified as being a Congregational chapel for the first time. Until then the differences between the Presbyterians and Congregationalists had not been well defined. Thomas Bradbury, a minister who had come to New Court from a nearby nonconformist church at Fetter Lane, stipulated that the chapel should be run on the Congregational model.
The extension of the Law Courts in 1866 forced the congregation to move again and a new church was built at Tollington Park. Mission premises at Lennox Road were acquired in the 1880s. The Tollington Park premises were sold to the Roman Catholic church in 1959 (it is now Saint Mellitus Roman Catholic Church). The congregation moved to new premises on Regina Road in 1961 where it remained until its closure in 1976.
The London Congregational Union, part of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, was founded in 1873. It was divided into 10 districts:
1 - Central London
2 - West London
3 - North West London
4 - North London
5 - North East London
6 - East London
7 - Metropolitan Essex
8 - Metropolitan Kent
9 - Metropolitan Surrey (East)
10 - Metropolitan Surrey (West).
Methodism was established in the Highgate and Hornsey region in the early nineteenth century. It expanded alongside housing in the area and more Methodist churches were constructed. Churches in the area belonged to the Islington Circuit until 1873, when the Highgate Circuit was established.
Cleveland Hall was situated on Cleveland Street, Marylebone. It was a foundation of the West London Mission and was dedicated to helping young women who were in poverty.
The Craven Chapel and Hall were situated on Foubert's Place in the West End of London, near Regent Street. The chapel was constructed in 1822 by the Congregational Church, however, their membership had declined so much that by 1894 they sold the leases of the chapel and hall to the West London Mission of the Methodist Church. The hall was used for a wide variety of activities not just devotional but social, educational and welfare. By 1907 the leases had expired and the buildings were subsequently sold and used for commercial purposes.
The Seymour Place Methodist Church, Bryanstone Square, Marylebone, was originally part of the Primitive Methodist Connexion and belonged to their London Ninth Circuit. It subsequently joined the Wesleyan Methodist West London Mission, possibly after 1932 when the Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists merged. It is now used as the West London Day Centre for homeless people which is run from the Mission headquarters at Thayer Street.
The Warwick Gardens Methodist Chapel was built in 1863 to designs by Lockwood and Mawson and demolished in about 1927. It represented a movement by local Wesleyans to broaden their scope and, in William Pepperell's words, 'plant chapels in more respectable localities, such as that of Warwick-gardens'.
The initiative came from the Bayswater Circuit of the Methodist Conference, to which the chapel was formally attached. It appears that there was a competition for the building, probably in mid 1862. The foundation stone for Lockwood and Mawson's chapel was laid in May 1863. The prominent site, at the south corner of Pembroke Gardens and Warwick Crescent (now Gardens), was taken from Lord Kensington on a long lease. The exterior, Geometric in style, was of red brick with black bands and Bath stone dressings, and had aisles, a high roof, and a slim tower and spire in the south-west position. Inside was a timber arcade and the usual array of galleries, while in a semi-basement were schoolrooms 'and a residence for the chapel-keeper'.
The finished chapel, opened on 10 December 1863, contained some 1,100 sittings. But Pepperell reported in 1871 that an average congregation amounted to some 200 only, and 'a number of these are from a distance, and properly belonging to other Methodist congregations'. The Reverend C. Maurice Davies, visiting a few years later, offered a livelier impression. 'There was generally a shiny look about the chapel, as though everything, including the congregation, had been newly varnished. The seats were low, the galleries retiring, and everything in the most correct ecclesiastical taste. The position of the pulpit was strange to me; and the addition of a table covered with red baize surmounted by a small white marble font with a chamber towel ready for use, did not diminish the peculiarity. . . . The pulpit had succeeded in attaining the "Eastward position", but the table at its base did very well for a quasi-altar, and was flanked, north and south, by two semi-ecclesiastical hall chairs of oak. The font was locomotive, and might be supposed to occupy its abnormal position under protest.'
Pepperell's forebodings may have been accurate, for the chapel never attained much prosperity or influence. In about 1925 it was closed, its site sold to the Prudential Assurance Company, and shortly afterwards houses were built upon the site.
From: 'Churches and chapels: Non-Anglican denominations', Survey of London: volume 42: Kensington Square to Earl's Court (1986), pp. 386-394.
A Methodist circuit is normally a group of churches in a local area served by a team of ministers. A minister will have pastoral charge of one or more churches, but will preach and lead worship in different local churches in the circuit, along with local preachers. The arrangements for leading worship in a circuit are drawn up in a quarterly Plan. The Methodist Church in Britain is arranged into over 600 Circuits, which in turn are grouped into 32 Districts covering Great Britain, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Each District is supervised by a District Synod.
The London Mission East Circuit is part of the London North East District of the Methodist Church.
Chequer Alley (now Chequer Street) runs between Bunhill Row and Whitecross Street in Islington, near City Road. In the 1840s it was a socially deprived area, home to around 15,000 people living in poverty. In 1841 a Methodist, Miss Macarthy, from the nearby City Road Church began to visit the Alley and hand out Methodist tracts. Interest in her work increased to the point where she was able to begin Sunday preaching in a small hired room. These services eventually expanded to include a Sunday School, Day School, and classes for adults wishing to join the church.
Weymouth Terrace British School, Hackney Road, was in the First London Methodist Circuit circa 1864. British Schools were run using the "Lancasterian Monitorial System of Education", which was developed by Quaker John Lancaster in 1798. The system allowed huge numbers of pupils to be educated under one school-master by using able pupils as monitors assisting the others and was intended to provide a basic education for poor children. The "Society for Promoting the Lancasterian System for the Education of the Poor" was founded in 1808 and had the support of many non-conformists. The Society changed its name to the "British and Foreign Schools Society" in 1814 and founded many 'British Schools' which were often attached to non-conformist churches.
The Hackney Road Methodist Chapel was located in Hoxton, Hackney.
The Shoreditch Methodist Mission was part of the Hoxton Circuit. It later became part of the Leysian Mission Circuit, run from City Road, along with Haggerston Methodist Mission, Brownlow Street and Nichols Square, Hackney Road.
