The Queen's Chapel (officially, ''The Queen's Chapel St. James Palace'' and previously the German Chapel) is a chapel in central

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

, England, that was designed by

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant Architecture of England, architect in England and Wales in the Early modern Europe, early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvius, Vitruvian rules of proportion an ...

and built between 1623 and 1625 as an external adjunct to

St. James's Palace St James's Palace is the most senior royal palace in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. The palace gives its name to the Court of St James's, which is the monarch's royal court, and is located in the City of Westminster in London. Alt ...

for the Roman Catholic queen

Henrietta Maria Henrietta Maria (french: link=no, Henriette Marie; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from her marriage to King Charles I on 13 June 1625 until Charles was executed on 30 January 1649. She wa ...

. It is one of the facilities of the British monarch's personal religious establishment, the

Chapel Royal The Chapel Royal is an establishment in the Royal Household serving the spiritual needs of the sovereign and the British Royal Family. Historically it was a body of priests and singers that travelled with the monarch. The term is now also appl ...

, but should not be confused with the 1540 building also known as the ''

'', which is within the palace and just across Marlborough Road. It is a

Grade I 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 ...

listed building.

History

The Queen's Chapel was built as a Roman Catholic chapel at a time when the construction of churches for that denomination was otherwise prohibited in England, and was used by

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

's French queen

, who imported chapel furnishings from France. During the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of Kingdom of England, England's governanc ...

it was used as a stable. It was refurbished in 1662, and again in the 1680s by

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churc ...

. From the 1690s the chapel was used by the Continental Protestant courtiers of

William William is a masculine given name of Norman French 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 conq ...

and Mary. In 1781 the chapel was given over to German friends of George I who had moved to England with him. The chapel was then called the ''German Chapel''. On 17 September 1782 the German organist Augustus Frederic Christopher Kollmann began work at the Royal German Chapel and he was there for the rest of his life. He was succeeded by his son George Augustus Kollmann and his daughter Johanna Sophia Kollmann who died in 1849. It became a Chapel Royal again in 1938. The chapel was built as an integral part of St James's Palace, but when the adjacent private apartments of the monarch burned down in 1809 they were not replaced, and in 1856–57 Marlborough Road was laid out between the palace and the Queen's Chapel. The result is that physically the chapel now appears to be more part of the

Marlborough House Marlborough House, a Grade I listed mansion in St James's, City of Westminster, London, is the headquarters of the Commonwealth of Nations and the seat of the Commonwealth Secretariat. It was built in 1711 for Sarah Churchill, Duchess of M ...

complex than of St James's Palace. The body of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, lay at the Queen's Chapel for several days in 2002, during the preparations for her lying-in-state in

Westminster Hall The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north ban ...

before her ceremonial funeral.

Architecture

The brick building is rendered to appear as if it were stone built. It was built in a

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

style. It has

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...

ends with

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...

s. The interior vault is gilded and painted.

Gallery

File:The Queen's Chapel from Marlborough House.jpg, East and North walls
from Marlborough House grounds File:Queen's Chapel Jan Kip 1688.jpg, The Queen's Chapel in 1688 after refurnishing by

in 1682–1684 File:German Chapel, St James's Palace, from Pyne's Royal Residences, 1819 - panteek py107-331.jpg, The German Chapel in 1819 File:Information board on The Queen's Chapel.jpg, Plaque next to the Queen's Chapel

References

External links

{{Authority control Chapels in London Church of England church buildings in the City of Westminster Grade I listed churches in the City of Westminster Inigo Jones buildings Religious buildings and structures completed in 1625 Royal buildings in London London, Queen's Chapel London, Queen's Chapel 17th-century churches in the United Kingdom St James's

History

Architecture

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links