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

James Walworth

James Walworth

Monk at London Charterhouse. Exiled to the Charterhouse in Hull and then executed in York.

Person, Execution, Religion

1 memorial
Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief

Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief

Now known as the World Jewish Fund.  Established in 1933 as the Central British Fund, the charity rescued over 100,000 Jewish people from Germany before WWII and was also largely responsible for or...

Group, Religion, Social Welfare

1 memorial
Christchurch - Greyfriars Vestry

Christchurch - Greyfriars Vestry

Originally added to the church in 1760, built flush against the facade's south side and part of the church's south wall. Partially destroyed 1940, rebuilt in 1981.

Building, Religion

1 memorial
Benjamin Waugh

Benjamin Waugh

Social reformer and minister. Born in Settle, Yorkshire. Whilst working in the slums of Greenwich, he became appalled at the deprivations and cruelties suffered by children. He wrote 'The Gaol Crad...

Person, Children, Religion, Social Welfare

4 memorials
William Greenwood

William Greenwood

Lay brother at London Charterhouse. Taken to Newgate Prison, chained and left to starve to death.

Person, Execution, Religion

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Westminster City Council

Westminster City Council

The ancient parish of St Margaret's was divided into St Margaret's and St John's in 1727 but it was still run as a single vestry. In 1855 the two parishes were reformed into the Westminster Distric...

Group, Politics & Administration

183 memorials
Charity scholars

Charity scholars

Looking at London has a page about these little blue people but even there we can find no origin story explaining why and when the first such statues were erected. We note that there seems to be a ...

Group, Education, Philanthropy

23 memorials
Orange Street Church

Orange Street Church

WC2, Orange Street

{On the plaque to the right of the door:} Orange Street Congregational Church This Church was founded in 1693 by Huguenot refugees who ...

3 subjects commemorated