| Holy Trinity Sloane Street | |
| The Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity | |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Website | www.holytrinitysloanesquare.co.uk |
| Architecture | |
| Architect(s) | John Dando Sedding |
| Style | Arts & Crafts Gothic |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Upper Chelsea |
| Diocese | Diocese of London |
| Clergy | |
| Rector | Rev. Rob Gillion |
Holy Trinity Sloane Street (The Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity with Saint Jude, Upper Chelsea, sometimes known as Holy Trinity Sloane Square) is a London Anglican parish church, built 1888-90 at the south-eastern side of Sloane Street to a striking Arts & Crafts design by the architect John Dando Sedding at the cost of the 5th Earl Cadogan, in whose London estate it lay. It replaced an earlier building only half its size which, at the time of its demolition, was less than sixty years old.
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Holy Trinity was built on a grand scale, suddenly becoming, if not the longest church in the capital then, strangely, the widest, eclipsing St Paul's Cathedral by nine inches. The internal fittings were the work of leading sculptors and designers of the day, including F. W. Pomeroy, H. H. Armstead, Onslow Ford and Hamo Thornycroft. In 1891 Sedding died (his memorial can be seen on the north wall in the Lady Chapel) and Henry Wilson took charge of the project to complete the interior decoration of the building to the original design. In part, he failed, for some of the glass was never installed, nor was the important addition of a frieze beneath the high windows even attempted. Some of the internal sculpture/carving is still incomplete. In the 1920s the interior was whitened by F. C. Eden, lightening the character and feel of the building considerably.
The church houses an important collection of stained glass, including an enormous east window by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris; and other windows by William Blake Richmond (including some highly decadent imagery), Powells (the Memorial Chapel) and by Christopher Whall (the incomplete clerestory sequence and two striking windows on the south side of the nave). The large west window, which William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones had apparently hoped to complete before moving onto the east window, was never done and the plain glass in it was eventually destroyed by enemy action, although all the other windows survived or were repaired. The project to glaze the west window remains to be realised.
The churchmanship at the time of the opening of the new building might have been described as eclectically High, as the liturgy seems to have been drawn from a number of sources and traditions, although at this distance it is hard to gauge what exactly was done. After a long period of less symbolic worship, notably under the long tenure (1945–1980) of Alfred Basil Carver and the shorter incumbencies of his successors Phillip Roberts (1980-7) and Keith Yates (1987–97), the building has now returned to a liberal Catholic style of worship.
The church was badly damaged by incendiary bombs in World War II but was restored more or less to its previous appearance by the early 1960s. There was then a concerted attempt by the church authorities to close and demolish the building, replacing it with something smaller but this was thwarted by a campaign led by John Betjeman and the Victorian Society. The building now houses a thriving congregation built during the ten years under the incumbency (1997–2007) of Michael Eric Marshall, the former Bishop of Woolwich. It would seem that the connection with the world of the fine arts not only represented in the building and its fittings but also in sponsorship and encouragement of artists and musicians is likely to continue under the Rev. Rob Gillion, trained as an actor, who became Rector late in 2008.
Holy Trinity had a reputation for Anglican church music from the early days and, for most of its history until the mid 1970s, Choral Evensong was a daily event. Happily, since 1987, when the enthusiasm of Keith Yates led to a revival, choral music has thrived in one form or another, thanks to the efforts of a succession of choirmasters, most recently in 2003, when the choir was again reformed with professional singers under the current Director of Music, Andrew O'Brien, whose present assistant is Oliver Lallemant. Future plans include the return of a choir school and a local choral society directed by Oliver Lallemant has now been formed. Liturgical choral music is also provided approximately once each month by "conQordia", a choir drawn largely from members of the BBC Symphony Chorus.
John Sedding was himself an organist and provided an unusually large chamber for the famous four-manual J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd organ to occupy at the north-east corner. The instrument was badly damaged by enemy action in the Second World War but patched up in 1947 and partially rebuilt twenty years later. A definitive rebuild by Harrison & Harrison began on 13th June 2011, with the aim of restoring and enlarging the instrument using the surviving Walker pipework augmented by matching new material, confirming its former position as one of the principal organs in London. The present organ curator is Michael Brough, who had a 32 ft reed added to the organ in 1992.
The organ is played for services and recitals principally by Oliver Lallemant and Michael Brough. Notable organists have included Edwin Lemare (1892-5), Sir Walter Alcock (1895–1902) and H. L. Balfour (1902–42), all of whom were leading men in their field; and a vigorous tradition continues to this day. The composer John Ireland was Alcock's assistant; he had hoped to be promoted when the latter left in 1902 but was regarded as too young to take over, a decision later viewed as an unfortunate mistake. Later players and assistants have included Arnold Greir, Ian Curror, Simon Lindley and, most notably, Alan Harverson, sometime Professor of Organ at the Royal Academy of Music.
Many notable figures have worshipped and assisted at Holy Trinity Sloane Street, always a place capable of attracting figures from seemingly opposing sides of the British political spectrum. The colourful Liberals Gladstone and Dilke both attended the church: Gladstone had a habit of marching down the street with Lemare before the main morning service; whilst Dilke lived only yards away in the parish (his house lies further up the road on the west side, today marked by a blue plaque); and his funeral was held at Holy Trinity. The church soon attracted the attention of Bohemian artists and poets some of whom clustered loosely round Oscar Wilde, whose arrest took place, famously, at the Cadogan Hotel. At the same time, the church was and still figures high in the cherished heritage of the Cadogan family and its Estate. Extremely popular in the 1920s, there was a very extensive clergy team under the Rector Christopher Cheshire, including, for a time, the priest, ecclesiologist and hymnographer Percy Dearmer.
Recently, Holy Trinity Sloane Street has sponsored international Christian links through a network of Friends. It is host church for the Awareness Foundation, a teaching and outreach organisation dedicated in part to the increase of interfaith understanding and respect, with branches in other parts of the world, notably in the Middle East and North America.
As a local parish church, Holy Trinity now offers a selection of liturgical worship and community events and is a concert venue. Uncluttered by static pews, the vast nave provides flexible space for concerts and events, the focus of some of which mirrors and re-expresses the artistic climate surrounding its first two decades. An arts and crafts guild was established by Michael Marshall early in his incumbency; more recently, an annual summer festival, the Chelsea Schubert Festival, has appeared, supplemented by concerts and recitals during the rest of the year.
On 1st November 2011, the parish of St Saviour, Upper Chelsea, was added to that of Holy Trinity and the new parochial unit is The Parish of The Holy and Undivided Trinity with St Saviour, Upper Chelsea, and the church building in Walton Place became a chapel of ease to Holy Trinity.