St Augustine's, Queen's Gate

St Augustine's, Queen's Gate
51°29′36″N 0°10′41″W / 51.4933°N 0.1780°WCoordinates: 51°29′36″N 0°10′41″W / 51.4933°N 0.1780°W
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Anglo-Catholic
Architecture
Architect(s)	William Butterfield
Administration
Deanery	Chelsea
Archdeaconry	Middlesex
Episcopal area	Kensington (Bishop of Kensington)
Diocese	London

St Augustine's, Queen's Gate is a Grade II* listed Anglican church in Queen's Gate, Brompton, London, England. The church was built in 1865, and the architect was William Butterfield.^[1]

History

In 1865 the curate of Holy Trinity, Brompton, the Reverend R. R. Chope, had a temporary iron church put up in his garden off Gloucester Road, and there he would conduct services which, for one writer of the time, were "the nearest approach to Romanism we have witnessed in an Anglican church … if indeed it be not very Popery itself under the thinnest guise of the Protestant name". Finding the temporary church inadequate, a group of influential members of his congregation approached the Church Commissioners later that year with a request for the formation of a new parish in South Kensington to be known as St Augustine's. They offered a 'benefaction' of £100 per annum, stipulating that the first incumbent should be Mr Chope.^[2]

As there was no shortage of churches in the neighbourhood, the Bishop of London, A. C. Tait, objected strongly to the proposal and it was not until after he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1868 that a site was purchased and the new parish formed. It was a difficult site, for although plans had been formulated to extend Queen's Gate to Old Brompton Road, at this time the road went no further than the crossing of Harrington Road. Access to the site had to be made through what is today Reece Mews, and the church plan was aligned with this. This accounts for the strange angle the church presents today in relation to Queen's Gate.^[2]

William Butterfield was appointed architect, and the estimated cost of his plan was £18,000. As there was not enough money, it was proposed to build the church in two stages. The nave and aisles were ready for services in 1871. The chancel and sanctuary were completed in 1876. The seating capacity was for 853 people.^[2]

References

1. "CHURCH OF ST AUGUSTINE". English Heritage. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
2. Weinreb, Ben, and Hibbert, Christopher (1992). The London Encyclopaedia (reprint ed.). Macmillan. p. 714. Retrieved 15 January 2016.