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  UCL BLOOMSBURY PROJECT

 

Bloomsbury Project

Bloomsbury Institutions

Spiritual

Gower Street Chapel


 

History

It was a Christian place of worship; according to the Survey of London, it was “erected in 1820 by seceding members from William Huntingdon’s Providence Chapel” which had been “rebuilt in 1811 in Gray’s Inn Road” (Survey of London, vol. 21, 1949)

It opened on 9 July 1820 (Ernest S. Marriott, A History of Gower Street Chapel London 1820–1917–1920, 1921), predating the building of houses on this part of Gower Street, which was then known as Gower Street North

The hymn-writer Henry Fowler was its Minister from July 1820 until his death in 1838, when Edward Blackstock took over, but his inconsistent views on communion led to much defection; a few of those disaffected met in other locations and eventually (on 25 May 1843) became a proper church at Eden Street, Hampstead, with William Hale as Deacon, and strict Baptist views (Ernest S. Marriott, A History of Gower Street Chapel London 1820–1917–1920, 1921)

In the meantime, Blackstock was still at the Gower Street Chapel, with fewer and fewer attending his services, and eventually the mortgagee foreclosed; the Chapel was sold to born-again preacher Rev. Arthur Triggs in 1848 for £1700 and enjoyed a brief resurgence (Ernest S. Marriott, A History of Gower Street Chapel London 1820–1917–1920, 1921)

By 1854, however, Triggs was looking to sell the Chapel, just as the disaffected and now Baptist congregation was looking to move, having outgrown its Hampstead premises; they bought the chapel back for £2200 in 1854, and the congregation returned with the first service on 7 January 1855 (Ernest S. Marriott, A History of Gower Street Chapel London 1820–1917–1920, 1921)

It ran Sunday School services from 1866

The remainder of the lease of the Gower Street Chapel building was sold to Maple & Co. in May 1917 for £250, and the building was later demolished

The Baptists also eventually sold their new premises, the Gower Street Memorial Chapel, to the Chinese Church in London in 2004, and it became their Soho Outreach Centre

What was reforming about it?

It was typical of the evangelical Protestant churches of the nineteenth century, involved in passionate disputes about key aspects of Christianity and how it should be practised

In 1860 some of the congregation denying the divinity of Christ; this had to be enforced as an article of faith by the other members (Ernest S. Marriott, A History of Gower Street Chapel London 1820–1917–1920, 1921)

Where in Bloomsbury

It was located between 141 and 143 Gower Street (as renumbered, having previously between nos 1 and 2 Gower Street North)

The lease of the building in Gower Street was granted on 30 September 1820 to run for 99 years from 25 March 1820 at a cost of £4000 (with a mortgage of £1400) from Sir W. Paxton (Ernest S. Marriott, A History of Gower Street Chapel London 1820–1917–1920, 1921)

The lease expired on 25 March 1919; planning and fundraising for a new building began in 1911, and the congregation purchased Soho Chapel, Shaftesbury Avenue (on the corner of Great White Lion Street) for £4000 in 1916 (Ernest S. Marriott, A History of Gower Street Chapel London 1820–1917–1920, 1921)

The last service at the Gower Street Chapel was held on 24 April 1917, and the congregation moved to Shaftesbury Avenue in 1917, calling the new chapel the “Gower Street Memorial Chapel” (Ernest S. Marriott, A History of Gower Street Chapel London 1820–1917–1920, 1921)

Website of current institution

It no longer exists

Books about it

Ernest S. Marriott, A History of Gower Street Chapel, London, 1820–1917–1920 (1921)

Richard George Stonelake, A City Not Forsaken: A History of Christian Witness in Gower Street and Shaftesbury Avenue Chapel (2000)

Archives

None found

This page last modified 14 April, 2011 by Deborah Colville

 

Bloomsbury Project - University College London - Gower Street - London - WC1E 6BT - Telephone: +44 (0)20 7679 3134 - Copyright © 1999-2005 UCL


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