St James' Church Paddington, also known as St James' Church Sussex Gardens, is a

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 Brit ...

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, ...

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

, London, in the United Kingdom. It is the

of Paddington. It is located at the western end of Sussex Gardens, a long tree-lined avenue, about north of Hyde Park.

History

Until the 1840s, the parish church of Paddington was St Mary's Paddington Green. This building was too small to accommodate its burgeoning congregation, and in 1841–1843 a new church, St James's, was built to accommodate the worshippers and to replace St Mary's as the parish church. The original St James's church was designed by John Goldicutt (c. 1841) but was finished by

George Gutch George Gutch (1790-1894) was a British architect and to four successive Bishops of London surveyor for much of the Diocese's southern strip of the parish of Paddington. Background Gutch was son of John Gutch, rector of St Clement's and regis ...

after Goldicutt's death. Goldicutt's original scheme was for a neo-classical design in yellow brick, influenced by his travels in Italy."Goldicutt, John"
Bertha Porter, rev. M.A. Goodall, ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

, 2004. Retrieved 12 July 2015. The yellow brick was used but Gutch changed the style to

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

. Within 40 years the congregation had outgrown its church building, and an enlarged church was required. The noted

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

architect G.E. Street planned extensive rebuilding, which involved retaining part of Goldicutt & Gutch's structure and remodelling the church in a 14th-century Gothic style. Unusually, Street reversed the traditional orientation of the church so that the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...

faced west rather than east, as is traditional in

church architecture Church architecture refers to the architecture of buildings of churches, convents, seminaries etc. It has evolved over the two thousand years of the Christian religion, partly by innovation and partly by borrowing other architectural styles as ...

."St James. Sussex Gardens, W2." in Street did not live to see his plans for St James's realised as he died on 18 December 1881, before construction started. Two months after Street's death, the

Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein Princess Helena (Helena Augusta Victoria; 25 May 1846 – 9 June 1923), later Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, was the third daughter and fifth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Helena was educated by private tutors chosen ...

laid the foundation stone for the new church on 11 February 1882. and the building work was carried out by

Sir Arthur Blomfield Sir Arthur William Blomfield (6 March 182930 October 1899) was an English architect. He became president of the Architectural Association in 1861; a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1867 and vice-president of the RIBA in ...

, an associate of G.E. Street's son, A.E. Street. On 29 May 1884, the Irish author

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

married Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

Constance Lloyd Constance Mary Wilde (née Lloyd; 2 January 1858 – 7 April 1898) was an Irish author. She was the wife of Irish playwright Oscar Wilde and the mother of their two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan. Early life and marriage The daughter of Horace Lloy ...

in St James's Church. This event is commemorated with a circular wall plaque which is at the east end of the church. The plaque, commissioned by the Oscar Wilde Society, was designed in Welsh

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

by the letter cutter & stone carver Tom Sargeant and unveiled at a ceremony on 29 May 2016, to mark the 132nd anniversary of the wedding. In 1940, during

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, St James's Church suffered considerable damage during

the Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

and the church

crypt A crypt (from Latin '' crypta'' " vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a c ...

was used as an

air-raid shelter Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...

. After wartime bomb damage has been repaired, the renovated church was -reopened in July 1958 by

Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (27 August 1968), born Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark ( el, Μαρίνα), was a Greek princess by birth and a British princess by marriage. She was a daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark a ...

. Renovations to the church included new

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

windows by AE Buss of Goddard & Gibbs. The ''Te Deum'' Window at the east end commemorates a selection of notable historical figures who lived in the Parish of St James, including the biologist and inventor of

penicillin Penicillins (P, PCN or PEN) are a group of β-lactam antibiotics originally obtained from '' Penicillium'' moulds, principally '' P. chrysogenum'' and '' P. rubens''. Most penicillins in clinical use are synthesised by P. chrysogenum usin ...

Alexander Fleming Sir Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin. His discovery in 1928 of what ...

; the playwright and author of ''

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...

'',

J.M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succe ...

; and the founder of

the Scout Association The Scout Association is the largest Scouting organisation in the United Kingdom and is the World Organization of the Scout Movement's recognised member for the United Kingdom. Following the origin of Scouting in 1907, the association was fo ...

, Lord Baden-Powell. The window also depicts a scene from the Blitz, commemorating those who died during the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

Organ

The organ was built by

William Hill & Sons William Hill & Son was one of the main organ builders in England during the 19th century. The founder William Hill was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire in 1789. He married Mary, the daughter of organ-builder Thomas Elliot, on 30 October 1818 i ...

and installed in 1882. The instrument has been rebuilt and revoiced several times in its history; originally the organ was built with three

manual Manual may refer to: Instructions * User guide * Owner's manual An owner's manual (also called an instruction manual or a user guide) is an instructional book or booklet that is supplied with almost all technologically advanced consumer ...

s, and in 1908 a fourth manual, the Solo, was added during enlargement work by

Hele & Co Hele & Co (also known as Hele & Sons) were the main organ builders in the south west of England from 1865 to 2007.''The Freeman-Edmonds Directory of British Organ Builders''; by Andrew Freeman & Bernard Edmonds. 2002 History The company was fo ...

of Plymouth. It was then rebuilt in 1936 by Rushworth and Dreaper of Liverpool, and again in 1972 by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.

References

External links

Parish website

A Church Near You entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint James's Church, Paddington

Grade II* listed churches in the City of Westminster Churches completed in 1882 19th-century Church of England church buildings Paddington Churches bombed by the Luftwaffe in London Anglo-Catholic churches in England receiving AEO Anglo-Catholic church buildings in London