In 1694, La Quarré French Church (founded 1690)
moved to this site on Berwick Street, close to the corner with Broadwick
Street. In 1709 Le Quarré was joined by the Swallow Street Church
congregation. The church moved to Little Dean Street (now Bourchier
Street) and closed about 1850. One other, Le Tabernacle French Church,
was in use in 1692-1695, and in 1696 was acquired by L'Église de Leicester
Fields, in Orange Street. It was apparently discontinued about 1720.
St Luke Berwick Street stood on the western side
of Berwick Street, between Tylers Court to the east and Ingestre Place
(formerly Husband Street) to the west. In 1839 it was built on the site of
La Vieille Patente French Chapel (built 1689, but empty by 1707), and
gained its own parish in 1863. Closed in 1935 and demolished a year later,
the site now houses a sixties development called Kemp House (on the left here),
with a mixture of shops, offices and flats.
City Gates is at 7 Greens Court, a narrow
alleyway off Peter Street, immediately south of Berwick Street. The
alley is busy despite its rather unappealing appearance, complete
with a cafe and exterior tables further down. This Evangelical
charismatic church has been meeting in central London since 1985,
but it also meets in small groups all over London, utilising the
homes of members and a scattering of small missions such as this one
to serve as regional headquarters.
St Anne's Soho is between Wardour Street and Dean
Street. Construction began on Soho Fields in 1677, and on 21 March 1686 the
building was consecrated by Bishop Henry Compton as the new parish church
for Soho, taken from St Martin's-in-the-Fields. The design was by either
William Talman or Christopher Wren (or perhaps both), while the name was
in honour of the future Queen Anne. The church was of the basilica
type, with a twenty-one metre (seventy feet) tower.
In 1801 the now unstable tower was rebuilt. On 24
September 1940, enemy bombing left the church a burned-out shell,
apart from the tower. The east wall on Dean Street was demolished in
1953 and built up with shop fronts (seen here), but the tower served
as a chapel and was fully restored in 1990-1991, when the entire
remaining church was restored. Parts of the churchyard around the
tower and west end are now the public park of St Anne's Gardens.
St Peter Great Windmill Street stood on,
or close to, the north-west corner of that and Archer Street. Great
Windmill Street was built up in the 1670s, and by 1854 plans were
being made to build a church here, requiring the demolition of three
older properties. Construction was in 1860-1861, designed by Raphael
Brandon, and the church gained its own parish in 1864. The church
was closed and demolished in 1954, and its parish united to St
Anne's Soho (see above).
St James' Church Piccadilly is on the
north-west corner of Jermyn Street and Church Place. In 1662, Henry
Jermyn, First Earl of St Albans, was granted land for residential
development on what was then the outskirts of London. He set aside
land for the building of a parish church and churchyard on the south
side of what is now Piccadilly. The church was designed and built by
Sir Christopher Wren, with the appointment being made in 1672 and
consecration taking place in 1684.
Built of red brick with Portland stone dressings, the
church's interior has galleries on three sides supported by square
pillars, and the nave has a barrel vault supported by Corinthian
columns. The carved marble font and limewood reredos are both good
examples of the work of Grinling Gibbons. William Blake was baptised
at the church in 1757, but the building was severely damaged by
enemy action in 1940, during the Second World War. Thankfully, it
was fully repaired.
Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory
Catholic Church is on the eastern side of Warwick Street. A
Portuguese embassy Catholic chapel was here by 1747 (later Bavarian).
The chapel was severely damaged during the Gordon Riots of 1780.
The present chapel opened on 12 March 1790. In 1854 it became an
Anglican parish church, although it was still known as the Bavarian
Chapel until the early 1900s, and is now the only remaining Catholic
embassy chapel of its period.
St Thomas Regent Street stood on the
north-west corner of Kingly Street and Tenison Court. It was erected
as a proprietary chapel in 1702 by Dr Thomas Tenison, archbishop of
Canterbury, on the site of an earlier wooden tabernacle or oratory
which he had erected about fifteen years before. The chapel became a
district church in 1869 and was then dedicated to St Thomas. It was
also known as the Archbishop Tenison Chapel. It closed in 1954
and was demolished.