St Peter's Church, Hammersmith
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| St Peter's Church, Hammersmith |
|
| Denomination | Church of England (Anglican) |
|---|---|
| Administration | |
| Deanery | Hammersmith and Fulham Deanery |
| Diocese | Diocese of London |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Clergy | |
| Vicar | The Revd Canon John Record |
| Curate | The Revd Matthew Stone |
| Other | |
| Organist | Steven Moore |
| Churchwarden | Richard Millar |
| Churchwarden | Margaret Lind-Smith |
| Website | Official website of St Peter's |
St Peter's Church, Hammersmith is Anglican denomination, situated on Black Lion Lane and is the oldest church in Hammersmith.
Contents |
[edit] History
When the church was built in the village of Hammersmith in 1829, all that surrounded it was meadows, market gardens and smallholdings. The area steadily increased in size and prosperity due to the close proximity to the Thames which was an important trading area.
The land was donated to the church by George Scott born in 1780 to a wealthy family in Hammersmith. In 1807 George Scott married Hannah Lucy Stoe, the daughter of another wealthy local family. She brought, as her marriage settlement, the sum of £5,000, a large portion of land south of Ravenscourt Park and the land around Black Lion Lane (now St Peter’s Square). By the 1820s Scott was deeply involved in the religious, social and business life of Hammersmith. He was a well-known and respected magistrate who provided generously to the causes of his poorer neighbours.[1]
Although George Scott donated the site, substantial financial contributions were provided by Doctor Horsley who was the Bishop of London (£250) and the Revd William Wood the Rector and Vicar of Fulham, (£500).
The architect was Edward Lapidge, born in Hampton Wick, Surrey in 1793. His father, Samuel Lapidge, was a landscape gardener working at Hampton Court as an assistant to Lancelot (Capability) Brown.
In 1823, Lapidge was finalist in a competition to design a set of new buildings for King’s College, Cambridge. In 1835 he was a finalist again in a competition to design the Fitzwilliam Museum. A selection of his successfully completed works include Hampton Wick Church (1829), the rebuilding of Hampton Church (1830), St Mary’s Church, Putney (1836) and the enlargement of Fulham Church (1839). In 1852 he designed Reigate Police Station. As a Fellow of the Institute of British Architects he exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1808 and 1850. He died in 1860 and is buried at Hampton Wick Church.[2]
On 8 November 1836 the London Gazette newspaper defined the boundaries of the St Peter’s District as:
It is bounded on the west by the Parish of Chiswick; on the south by the River Thames, the Creek and the High Bridge. Worple Way is towards the southern extremity of Waterloo Street; on the east northwardly Waterloo Street, including the west side of that street; then westward, by King’s Street, that is the Turnpike Road leading from London to Brentford, as far as Webb’s Lane, as far as Gould Hawke Road; and on the north by Gould Hawke Road until the said ancient road terminates in Chiswick parish at Stamford Brook.
Some of the most visually beautiful features of St Peter’s Church are the murals, which cover the east wall above the galleries. The murals depict Saint Peter being called by Jesus Christ and the apostle preaching in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. These are the most recent additions to the decorations of the church and were painted in 1932.
The stone font was moved from its original position at the back of the church and is now sited in the middle, beside the southern aisle and is frequently in use for baptisms. The carved Eagle Lectern was presented to St Peter’s Church by the then Churchwarden Major C. E. A. Cotes RA. It was erected in the memory of his nephew.
When built, St Peter’s Church was had a single bell, cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry and inscribed ‘Edward Mears fecit , London 1828’. In 1916, four more bells were cast by Mears and Stainbank to provide a ring of five.[3]
When the Great West Road was built in 1957 the Church lost a significant portion of its land, including that with graves. These were moved to St Paul’s Church, in the centre of Hammersmith. There is one headstone remaining on the south side of the church and thirty on the north side. All of the graves inscriptions are now indecipherable, except for the one on the south side.
St Peter's Church is linked to St Bartholomew’s Cathedral Church, Messumba, Mozambique.[4]
