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
Saint John's Wood Church was formerly known as Saint John's Wood Chapel. Saint John's Wood Chapel was built in 1814 as a chapel of ease to Saint Marylebone parish church (P89/MRY1) and to serve the new burial ground adjoining it. In 1898 it became a chapel of ease to Christ Church, Cosway Street (P89/CTC), served by its own minister until the 1920s. In 1932 the Rector of Christ Church moved from Christ Church House into St John's House and St John's appears to have become increasingly the centre of parochial administration to which were added in February 1941 the parishes of Saint Stephen the Martyr, Avenue Road (P81/STE1), and Saint Barnabas, Bell Street (P89/BAN). Consequently the records of Saint John's for these years include many items relating to Christ Church and some to the other two parishes.
The scheme for the parochial reorganisation of St Marylebone published in 1945 proposed that St John's Wood Chapel should be transferred to Saint Stephen's Parish and should replace Saint Stephen's Church as the parish church of the new parish. The Bishop of London closed Saint Stephen's Church from 31 October 1945 and asked Saint Stephen's Parochial Church Council to recognise Saint John's Wood Chapel as their parish church without waiting for a formal legal decision. When the Rector of Christ Church resigned at the end of 1947, he was replaced by two incumbents, the Rector of Saint Stephen with Saint John and the Rector of Christ Church with Saint Barnabas. On 1 January 1948 Christ Church balances were transferred out of the Saint John's ledger. The Saint Stephen's accounts were closed and the money was transferred to Saint John's, thus effectively implementing the reorganisation scheme. On 11 March 1952 an Order in Council was published ratifying the reorganisation scheme, by which Saint John's Wood Chapel was transferred to the parish of Saint Stephen the Martyr, Avenue Road, Portland Town and replaced Saint Stephen's Church as parish church. A further Order in Council on 9 September 1952 changed the name of the parish to St John's Wood.
Although legally Saint John's was only a chapel of ease until 1952, it had become the administrative centre of three parishes. Rather than Saint Stephen's parish taking over Saint John's Wood Church, Saint John's Wood Church appears to have taken over Saint Stephen's parish. Most of the series of the records used for Saint Stephen's were closed and either the Saint John's records were used for the new parish or a new series was started.