All Saints Cathedral, Camden Street, London, originally All Saints Church, Camden Town, St Pancras, Middlesex, is a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

in the

Camden Town Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as o ...

area of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was built for the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

, but it is now a

Greek Orthodox The term Greek Orthodox Church (Greek language, Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the Eastern Orthodox Church, entire body of Orthodox (Chalced ...

church known as the Greek Orthodox Cathedral Church of All Saints. It stands where Camden Street and Pratt Street meet.

History

Camden Town was developed from the 1790s onwards in the then largely rural parish of St Pancras, on the northern fringe of London. The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

was one of the oldest in England, but it had been in gradual decline since the 14th century when the weight of the parish population became the northern parts of what was becoming

Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town. Less than four miles north of central London, Kentish Town has good transport connections and is situated close to the ope ...

and Camden Town. In 1822 a new parish church,

St Pancras New Church St Pancras Church is a Greek Revival church in St Pancras, London, built in 1819–22 to the designs of William and Henry William Inwood. Location The church is on the northern boundary of Bloomsbury, on the south side of Euston Road, at the c ...

, on

Euston Road Euston Road is a road in Central London that runs from Marylebone Road to King's Cross. The route is part of the London Inner Ring Road and forms part of the London congestion charge zone boundary. It is named after Euston Hall, the family ...

in the southern part of the parish, was consecrated, but it was intended mainly to serve the population in its immediate vicinity. In 1818 a

Church Building Act Church Building Act is a stock short title used in the United Kingdom for legislation relating to the building of churches. List The Church of Scotland Act 1824 is sometimes referred to as the Church Building (Scotland) Act 1824. The Church Buil ...

had been passed by Parliament to facilitate the construction of new churches in London's many new districts, including this one for Camden Town. All Saints, Camden Town

The church was built between 1822 and 1824 and was known as first as the Camden Chapel, then, unofficially, as St Stephen's. It did not receive the dedication of All Saints until 1920. It was designed by the father and son team of

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

and Henry Inwood who were also responsible for

. It is a fairly large building of yellow stock brick, with east and west ends faced in

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

. The plan is basically rectangular, with an eastern apse mirrored by a semi-circular

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

at the west end. Just behind the portico is a cylindrical stone tower surrounded by columns, in imitation of the

Choragic Monument of Lysicrates The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates near the Acropolis of Athens was erected by the ''choregos'' Lysicrates, a wealthy patron of musical performances in the Theater of Dionysus, to commemorate the prize in the dithyramb contest of the City Diony ...

in Athens. The Ionic order is based on fragments brought back from Greece by Henry Inwood and now in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. The interior has a flat ceiling, with galleries on three sides supported by Ionic columns. The building has generally been praised, but both contemporary writers and later architectural critics such as Sir

John Summerson Sir John Newenham Summerson (25 November 1904 – 10 November 1992) was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century. Early life John Summerson was born at Barnstead, Coniscliffe Road, Darlington. His grandfather wo ...

have argued that the tower is too thin in proportion to the body of the church. It is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

It became a parish church in its own right in 1852. In the 19th century it had a large congregation, like many other Anglican churches in the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

: an 1854 survey of church attendance found that the number of worshippers was 1,650 on Sunday mornings, 630 on Sunday afternoons and 1,430 on Sunday evenings. In the 20th century the congregation decreased and in 1948 All Saints became a Greek Orthodox church, retaining its dedication while St Michael's in Camden Road took over the parish, becoming the main Anglican church in Camden Town. The area acquired a large Greek speaking community in the decades after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, mostly from

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

, and the church is still well used, though many of the worshippers now come from the outer suburbs of London. In 1991 All Saints was raised to the status of a cathedral. The church has been renovated a number of times. Most recently since January 2009 under the supervision of English Heritage and co-sponsored by the National Lottery and donations from the Greek Orthodox Community of the parish.

References

*''Camden Town and Primrose Hill Past'' by John Richardson (1991) *''Georgian London'' by

(1988 ed.)

External links

Official website of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of All Saints
{{Churches in Camden Churches completed in 1824 Religious organizations established in 1824 Churches in the London Borough of Camden Church buildings converted to a different denomination Greek Orthodox cathedrals in England Grade I listed churches in London Grade I listed cathedrals 19th-century Church of England church buildings Former Church of England church buildings 1824 establishments in England Camden Town Grade I listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden Cathedrals in London