The Kensington Chapel

The Kensington Chapel, Allen Street, London W8 in 2012. [Source: geograph.org.uk]
Kensington Chapel, Allen Street, London W8. Postcard c.1909. [Source: Alamy G3CP58]
The location of the Kensington Chapel, London W8.
Kensington Chapel, Allen Street, London W8.

Ground plan (c.1939) of the Kensington Chapel, Allen Street, London W8 [Source: Survey of London]
The Kensington Chapel – Allen Street, London W8 – was opened in 1855 to serve as a Congregationalist place of worship.

The architect was Andrew Trimen (1810–72), a favourite of the English Congregational Chapel-Building Society, and the builder was Thomas Chamberlain (n.d.). The total cost of £8,748 included the purchase of the site from the Phillimore family.

Subsequent additions included the eastern hall and meeting rooms (1856). A new school was provided to one side of the chapel 1868–9 designed by G. Gordon Stanham costing £5,000; subsequently demolished and the site redeveloped.

The chapel building was severely damaged by aerial bombing in 1940 and was not restored to use until 1958, with upgraded minister’s accommodation, halls and meeting rooms.

The pipe-organ

Postcard of the Kensington Chapel, Organ & Rev.Thomas Yates, c.1908. Photograph: J Beagle
Kensington Chapel, Allen Street, London W8. Pipe-organ of 1958, by Henry Willis & Sons Ltd.
Kensington Chapel, Allen Street, London W8. Pipe-organ of 1958, by Henry Willis & Sons Ltd.
Kensington Chapel, Allen Street, London W8. Pipe-organ of 1958, by Henry Willis & Sons Ltd.
Builder’s plate (in 2019) on the pipe-organ at the Kensington Chapel, Allen Street, London W8

The present west-gallery instrument was installed in 1958, replacing an earlier instrument that was lost when the building suffered war damage. This two-manual and pedal pipe organ is by the firm of Henry Willis and bears two dates: 1868 and 1958. The earlier date suggests the organ had previously been elsewhere, currently unknown. The specification can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register (see ‘References’ below).

Advertisement in the Musical Times, February 1959, for an organist at the kenisington Chapel, and its newly installed Willis organ.

Previously the chapel’s organ had its pipe-organ placed at the centre of the east wall, as we see in the first pipe-organ image above. The history of this former organ is unclear, the first available evidence – dating from 1921 – notes that it was rebuilt in 1890 by the firm of Hele and Co.

A description (1921) of the rebuilt organ in the Kensington Chapel, Allen Street, London W8.[Source: ”Dictionary of organs and organists” F. W. Thornsby, ed. (London, 1921 2nd edition) 145.
References

%d bloggers like this: