Plaque: Foundation stone of the Jewin Welsh Church
Erection date: 31/3/1960
Er gogoniant i Dduw gosodwyd y garreg hon Mawrth 31 1960 gan y gwir anrhydeddus arglwydd faer Llundain yr henadur Syr Edmund Stockdale ar achlysur ail-adeiladu’r capel a ddinistriwyd Medi 1940. Duw sydd noddfa a nerth i ni (Salm XLVI).
{Translated from the Welsh this reads:}
For the glory of God this stone was laid on 31st March 1960 by the Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London, alderman Sir Edmund Stockdale, on the occasion of the rebuilding of the chapel that was destroyed in September 1940. God is our refuge and strength (Psalm 46).
We are immensely grateful to our Welsh consultant, David Hopkins, who took the time, not just to translate, but also to correctly punctuate our transcription.
Site: Welsh church foundation stone + fan makers (2 memorials)
EC1, Fann Street, 70, Jewin Welsh Church
The fan makers' plaque is on the west face of the building, to the left of our photograph. The more central plaque gives the times of church services. Below that, near the ground and behind the bollards, is the foundation plaque.
This building is the Mother Church of the Welsh Presbyterian Church in London, whose history is:
c.1774, a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist congregation held services in Cock Lane, Smithfield. By 1785 they had moved to Wilderness Row, near the junction of what is today St John Street and Clerkenwell Road. In 1822-3 they moved to Jewin Crescent, a street now lost under the Barbican but maps at Londonist make it clear where this was. Wales online has a splendid photo of the congregation gathered outside this chapel in 1876, presumably, a farewell gathering.
1878-9 a new chapel was built by Charles Bell in nearby Fann Street and the congregation moved there but retained the Jewin name.
The chapel was destroyed in WW2 air raids in September 1940. Capel Jewin has a painting, uncaptioned, which we think is probably the chapel ruin.
Replaced by current building in 1956-61, designed by Caroe and Partners in a Swedish-inspired form of modern architecture sometimes called the New Humanism.
