Building    From 29/3/1778  To 1944

Essex Street Chapel and Essex Hall

Categories: Religion

The first Unitarian service was preached by Theophilus Lindsey on 17 April 1774.  Supported by Joseph Priestley, Richard Price (see scientific life assurance) and others he used space recently vacated by an auction house, a simple hall built on the site of the old Essex HouseBenjamin Franklin was also present at this service.  The congregation grew and Lindsey's friends funded a purpose-built chapel on the same site, opened on 29 March 1778.

By the 1880s another Unitarian congregation had grown in Kensington but without a chapel. Also two Unitarian bodies required better offices: the British and Foreign Unitarian Association and The Sunday School Association. It was decided that the Essex Street congregation would join that in Kensington, in a new church (funded by Sir James Clarke Lawrence and his brother Edwin) and the old chapel would be redeveloped to become Essex Hall, the headquarters of British Unitarianism. With substantial funding from Frederick Nettlefold this was built in 1886, destroyed in WW2 but rebuilt and, 2012, is still the Headquarters of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.

The picture source website is excellent for the history of the building.

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Essex Street Chapel and Essex Hall

Commemorated ati

Essex Hall

{Plaque above seated men in picture:} Essex Hall Headquarters of the Genera...

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Essex Street & Essex Hall

This plaque was first erected at 7 Essex Street in 1962 and then re-erected h...

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Other Subjects

Warne, Jnr.

Warne, Jnr.

Either burnt or poisoned in prison for his Protestant beliefs. Son of Elizabeth.

Person, Execution, Religion

1 memorial
Ewer Street Burial Ground

Ewer Street Burial Ground

St Saviour's Southwark has some good reports describing this burial ground at various times: 1822 - a report of a body-snatching incident; 1839 - a report of its over-filled "repulsive" condition; ...

Place, Religion

1 memorial
St Margaret, Fish Street Hill

St Margaret, Fish Street Hill

Lost in the Great Fire and not rebuilt.  Stood where the Monument now stands.

Building, Religion

1 memorial
La Patente church

La Patente church

In 1740 this French Hugeonot church moved into the building in Hanbury Street, with a patent granted by King James II.

Group, Religion, France

2 memorials
Revd. Dr. N. J. Wallbank

Revd. Dr. N. J. Wallbank

Rector of St Bartholomew's in 1973.

Person, Religion

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Sports Heritage

Sports Heritage

It became part of what is now the Heritage Foundation.

Group, Sport / Games

3 memorials
My Beautiful Laundrette

My Beautiful Laundrette

1985 film starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Gordon Warnecke, written by Hanif Kureishi and directed by Stephen Frears. The story concerns Omar, a young Pakistani man living in London, and his reunion a...

Media, Cinema

1 memorial
Stephen Frears

Stephen Frears

Film and television director. Born Stephen Arthur Frears in Leicester. His many works include My Beautiful Laundrette, 'Prick up Your Ears' and 'The Queen'.  He had worked with The Scaffold early i...

Person, Cinema, TV & Radio

1 memorial