Building    From 29/3/1778  To 1944

Essex Street Chapel and Essex Hall

Categories: Religion

The first Unitarian service was preached by Theophilus Lindsey on 17 April 1774.  Supported by Joseph Priestley, Richard Price (see scientific life assurance) and others he used space recently vacated by an auction house, a simple hall built on the site of the old Essex HouseBenjamin Franklin was also present at this service.  The congregation grew and Lindsey's friends funded a purpose-built chapel on the same site, opened on 29 March 1778.

By the 1880s another Unitarian congregation had grown in Kensington but without a chapel. Also two Unitarian bodies required better offices: the British and Foreign Unitarian Association and The Sunday School Association. It was decided that the Essex Street congregation would join that in Kensington, in a new church (funded by Sir James Clarke Lawrence and his brother Edwin) and the old chapel would be redeveloped to become Essex Hall, the headquarters of British Unitarianism. With substantial funding from Frederick Nettlefold this was built in 1886, destroyed in WW2 but rebuilt and, 2012, is still the Headquarters of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.

The picture source website is excellent for the history of the building.

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Essex Street Chapel and Essex Hall

Commemorated ati

Essex Hall

{Plaque above seated men in picture:} Essex Hall Headquarters of the Genera...

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Essex Street & Essex Hall

This plaque was first erected at 7 Essex Street in 1962 and then re-erected h...

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Other Subjects

First synagogue after resettlement

First synagogue after resettlement

A house in Creechurch Lane was converted to a synagogue for the Sephardi Jews (Spanish and Portuguese) which opened in 1657. This was enlarged but the increase in numbers quickly made a purpose-bui...

Building, Religion

1 memorial
Christchurch - Greyfriars Vestry

Christchurch - Greyfriars Vestry

Originally added to the church in 1760, built flush against the facade's south side and part of the church's south wall. Partially destroyed 1940, rebuilt in 1981.

Building, Religion

1 memorial
Regent Square Church

Regent Square Church

Forgive us for the length of this entry. The history of the various buildings is complicated. In 2015 the Buddists very kindly allowed us to look around their building and that resolved most of our...

Building, Politics & Administration, Religion

1 memorial
Thomas Anthony

Thomas Anthony

Methodist active in the 1920s.

Person, Religion

1 memorial
Reverend Nicholas Richards

Reverend Nicholas Richards

Priest. Ordained as a deacon in 1966 and as a priest in 1967. He served in curacies in Coventry and Winchester before coming to Southwark.

Person, Community / Clubs, Religion

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Queen Victoria at Imperial College

Queen Victoria at Imperial College

SW7, Exhibition Road, Imperial College main entrance

Victoria and Albert have a long-standing association with Imperial College due to it being in an area designated for cultural and scienti...

3 subjects commemorated, 3 creators
Samuel Palmer (artist)

Samuel Palmer (artist)

Landscape painter. Born Surrey Square, SE17. Little formal training. 1826 -1835 he lived in Shoreham, Kent which he painted as a pastoral paradise. Associated with William Blake and John Linnell, w...

Person, Art

2 memorials