Grosvenor Chapel

Grosvenor Chapel
Style		Classical
Years built	April 1731
Administration
Division	Deanery of Westminster (St Margaret)
Diocese	Diocese of London
Parish	St George's, Hanover Square
Clergy
Priest in charge	The Revd Dr Richard Fermer
Priest(s)	The Revd Dr Alan Piggot (Assistant Priest)

Grosvenor Chapel is an Anglican church in what is now the City of Westminster, in England, built in the 1730s. It inspired many churches in New England. It is situated on South Audley Street in Mayfair.

History

The foundation stone of the Grosvenor Chapel was laid on 7 April 1730 by

rent to a syndicate of four “undertakers” led by Benjamin Timbrell, a prosperous local builder.

The new building was completed and ready to use by April 1731.

Soon after the original 99-year lease ran out in 1829 the chapel was brought within the parochial system as a Chapel of ease to St George's, Hanover Square.

The chapel has been the spiritual home to a number of famous people including John Wilkes, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, and his wife (parents to the Duke of Wellington), Florence Nightingale, U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Bishop Charles Gore.

During the Second World War, men and women of the American armed forces were welcomed to the chapel for their Sunday services, as recorded on a tablet outside the west wall, and after the war the congregation regularly included such people as the writer

, Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death in 1984.

Building

The simple classical form of the building, a plain rectangular box with two tiers of arched windows in the side walls, at the east a shallow projection for the communion table and at the west a portico over the pavement and a short spire containing a clock and bell to call the faithful to worship, is derived from recently completed churches such as James Gibbs’

in 1912–1913.

Music

The organ in Grosvenor Chapel was built by Abraham Jordan and installed in 1732 at the expense of

William Drake, Organ Builder

of Buckfastleigh, Devon, who built a new organ in a broadly 18th-century English style.

A specification of the organ can be found on the

The chapel enjoys a high standard of music with a resident professional group of five singers and an organist. The group is often augmented with other singers and instrumentalists for special occasions including an orchestra for Easter Day. The choir performs a large range of music from Renaissance to the present day.

There are regular free lunchtime concerts on Tuesdays at 1:10 pm.

• 
  East end, Grosvenor Chapel
• 
  West end, Grosvenor Chapel

Notable clergy

Curates-in-Charge ^[2]

The senior priest at Grosvenor Chapel was previously known as the

• 1941 to 1943: The Revd Cecil Wood
• 1944 to unknown: The Revd G. G. Pearson
• 1968 to 1979: The Revd John Bernard Gaskell
• 1980 to 1992: The Revd Dr Anthony Wendt "Tony" Marks
• 1994 to 2008: The Revd Simon Hobbs

Priests-in-Charge

Since 2006, the senior priest at Grosvenor Chapel is the

.

• 2008 to 2010: The Revd Mark Oakley
• 2012 to present: The Revd Dr Richard Fermer^[3]

Burials

• Richard Lumley, 2nd Earl of Scarbrough
• John Wilkes
• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Popular culture

The wedding at the start of the Richard Curtis film Love Actually takes place in the Grosvenor Chapel.

References

External links

• http://www.grosvenorchapel.org.uk
• Deanery of Westminster (St Margaret)

51°30′32″N 0°09′05″W / 51.5090°N 0.1514°W / 51.5090; -0.1514