Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
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.