St Augustine's, Queen's Gate, is a

Grade II* listed 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 I ...

Anglican

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 * Ch ...

Queen's Gate Queen's Gate is a street in South Kensington, London, England. It runs south from Kensington Gardens' Queen's Gate (the edge of which gardens are here followed by Kensington Road) to Old Brompton Road, intersecting Cromwell Road. The street i ...

Brompton, London Brompton, sometimes called Old Brompton, survives in name as a ward in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London. Until the latter half of the 19th century it was a scattered village made up mostly of market gardens in the county o ...

, England. The church was built in 1865, and the architect was

William Butterfield William Butterfield (7 September 1814 – 23 February 1900) was a Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). He is noted for his use of polychromy. Biography William Butterfield was born in Lon ...

History

In 1865 the curate of

Holy Trinity, Brompton Holy Trinity Brompton with St Paul's, Onslow Square and St Augustine's, South Kensington, often referred to simply as HTB, is an Anglican church in London, England. The church consists of six sites: HTB Brompton Road, HTB Onslow Square (forme ...

, the Reverend R. R. Chope, had a temporary iron church put up in his garden off Gloucester Road, and there he would conduct services which, for one writer of the time, were "the nearest approach to Romanism we have witnessed in an Anglican church … if indeed it be not very Popery itself under the thinnest guise of the Protestant name". Finding the temporary church inadequate, a group of influential members of his congregation approached the Church Commissioners later that year with a request for the formation of a new parish in

South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with t ...

to be known as St Augustine's. They offered a 'benefaction' of £100 per annum, stipulating that the first incumbent should be Mr Chope. Retrieved 15 January 2016. As there was no shortage of churches in the neighbourhood, the

Bishop of London A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or offic ...

, A. C. Tait, objected strongly to the proposal and it was not until after he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1868 that a site was purchased and the new parish formed. It was a difficult site, for although plans had been formulated to extend Queen's Gate to Old Brompton Road, at this time the road went no further than the crossing of Harrington Road. Access to the site had to be made through what is today Reece Mews, and the church plan was aligned with this. This accounts for the strange angle the church presents today in relation to Queen's Gate. William Butterfield was appointed architect, and the estimated cost of his plan was £18,000. As there was not enough money, it was proposed to build the church in two stages. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

and aisles were ready for services in 1871. 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. ...

and

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a s ...

were completed in 1876. The seating capacity was for 853 people.

Gerald Hocken Knight Gerald Hocken Knight (1908–1979) was a cathedral organist, who served at Canterbury Cathedral. Background Gerald Hocken Knight was born on 27 July 1908 in Par, Cornwall, the only son of Alwyne Knight of Par by his first wife Edith Harvey ...

was organist of St Augustine's from 1931 to 1937.

Present day

In 2010, St Augustine's was joined with the neighbouring parish of

Holy Trinity Brompton Holy Trinity Brompton with St Paul's, Onslow Square and St Augustine's, South Kensington, often referred to simply as HTB, is an Anglican church in London, England. The church consists of six sites: HTB Brompton Road, HTB Onslow Square (forme ...

(HTB). It was fully absorbed into its parish in March 2011, with the parish being renamed "Holy Trinity w St Paul, Onslow Sq and St Augustine, Sth Kensington". Unusually, given that HTB is a

charismatic Charisma () is a personal quality of presence or charm that compels its subjects. Scholars in sociology, political science, psychology, and management reserve the term for a type of leadership seen as extraordinary; in these fields, the term "ch ...

evangelical Anglican church, St Augustine's has "kept its Sung Eucharist, vestments and incense". It stands within the Modern Catholic

tradition A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays ...

of the Church of England. The Revd Paul Cowley, a curate of HTB was assigned to St Augustine's as its '

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

'. He had no previous experience of

High Church The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originat ...

Anglicanism, having trained for ordination at Oak Hill College (a

conservative evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual expe ...

theological college) and served as a minister of HTB (a charismatic evangelical church). Though he learnt the High Mass that was the main service of St Augustine's, he made a number of changes: a faculty was obtained to remove the pews and replace them with chairs but original pews as agreed with English Heritage are clearly on display in various parts of the building. Clergy from HTB wear albs and coloured stoles appropriate to the liturgical seasons to celebrate the weekly 11 am Sung Eucharist. There is also a service of Holy Communion at 9 am . A more informal, evening service was also introduced though this now takes place at St Paul's Onslow Square. In November 2018 The Revd Tom Jackson took over from Revd Paul Cowley. Under both these priests the congregation has flourished and grown and is an example to the rest of the church as to how different church traditions can happily and fruitfully coexist in a spirit of mutual understanding and respect.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Augustines Queens Gate Anglo-Catholic church buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Church of England church buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Churches completed in 1865 1865 establishments in England 19th-century Church of England church buildings William Butterfield buildings St Augustine's, Queen's Gate Romanesque Revival church buildings in England Holy Trinity Brompton plants Grade II* listed churches in London Grade II* listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea