Patrick Comerford
The Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland is a privately-owned 15th century chapel in the village of Roslin in Midlothian. It belongs to the Sinclair family and is known for fine carvings that historians find puzzling. The chapel has been the subject of wild theories and fantasies about the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail since the 1980s, later popularised by Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code.
Of course, these conspiracy theories have no historical or factual foundation. But, as I was rambling around Hampstead last week, indulging in some ‘church crawling,’ I wondered whether many tourists ever confuse the Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland with the Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel in Hampstead.
The present chapel, a Grade II listed building with important Pre-Raphaelite windows, was built in the neo-Gothic style in 1862. But the chapel had its first beginnings in the original Presbyterian presence in Hampstead in the decade after the Caroline restoration.
Those early Presbyterians met in Ralph Honywood’s house on Red Lion Hill, where he had a chaplain from 1666, and they continued meeting there until Red Lion chapel was built close by.
The first chapel or meeting house on Rosslyn Hill was set among farm buildings. It was a simple wooden structure, said to have been built in 1692 by Isaac Honywood who lived in the adjoining mansion. An early minister was Stephen Lobb (1647-1699), who had been accused of being involved in the Rye House plot in 1683.
The Red Lion Hill meeting house or chapel was first replaced in 1736. Ministers who served that chapel include Richard Amner (1736-1803), Rochemont Barbauld, husband of the radical poet Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743-1825), and Jeremiah Joyce (1763-1816).
During that time, the congregation was still described as Presbyterians, but later become Unitarian. The chapel built in the 1730s had become unsafe within a century, and was rebuilt in brick in 1828.
The Revd William Hincks (1794-1871), the minister from 1845 to 1849, was born in Cork and was the Unitarian minister in Cork from 1815 until 1818, when he moved to England. While he was at Rosslyn Hill Chapel (1845-1849), he was the first editor of the Unitarian magazine The Inquirer.
Hicks returned to Cork in 1849 as the first professor of natural history at Queen’s College, Cork. He later moved to Canada, where was the first professor of natural history at University College, Toronto, and became president of the Canadian Institute, now the Royal Canadian Institute.
Hicks was succeeded in Hampstead by the Revd Thomas Sadler (1822-1891), who arrived in 1846 aged 24, just two years after receiving his doctorate from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Bavaria. Sadler faced a severely depleted, dying congregation at Red Lion Chapel: the 18 remaining members were on the brink of closing the chapel and preparing to travel every Sunday to Essex Unitarian Church by the Strand.
Instead, Sadler had a ministry in Rosslyn Hill that lasted 45 years. During that time, the old chapel was extended and enlarged in 1850 and 1856, to hold 200-300 people.
A new chapel designed in the Neo-Gothic style by the architect John Johnson (1807-1878), was built in 1862 for a congregation of 400, with a possibility of adding a gallery for 60 more. The name Rosslyn Hill Chapel was adopted when it opened in 1863.
The new chapel was expanded in 1884-1885, with additions by the architect Thomas Worthington. The attractive entrance path was created in 1898 when the chapel bought and demolished two derelict shops, giving access to Rosslyn Hill.
The prominent residents of Hampstead who occasionally attended the chapel included the novelist George Eliot (1819-1880). Politicians who worshipped there included John Wood (1789-1856), a trustee of the chapel and Whig MP for Preston (1826-1832) and a supporter of the Great Reform Act 1832, and William Lawrence (1818-1897), Lord Mayor of London in 1863-1864 and twice Liberal MP for the City of London (1865-1874, 1880-1885).
The chancel has a set of four choir pews and a World War I memorial. The Wilson and Hammond window, installed in 1886, depicts Christ and the four Evangelists. From left to right are: Matthew, Mark, Christ, Luke and John. The lower panels draw from the Gospels: the Parable of the Talents (Matthew), the Poor Widow and the Rich Man (Mark), Mary Magdalene at the Tomb, the Prodigal Son (Luke) and the Apostles healing (Luke).
The chapel has four relief and plaques by John Flaxman (1755-1826), including a plaque to the artist Helen Allingham (1848-1926). Flaxman was one of Britain’s best sculptors and two reliefs in the chancel are by him: Charity (1816-1819) and Maternal Affection (1811). On either side of the chancel are two more striking reliefs with quotation from the Lord’s Prayer: ‘For Thine is the Kingdom’ and ‘Deliver us from Evil’.
The bronze plaque in the chancel to the Revd Thomas Sadler and his wife Mary Colgate was designed by William Morris, with a dedication composed by the Revd Dr James Martineau (1805-1900). Martineau was a distinguished Unitarian theologian and is commemorated in a tablet above the vestry door. He was ordained in the Unitarian or Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church in Eustace Street, Dublin, in 1828, and returned to England in 1832.
The chapel has a number of Pre-Raphaelite and Arts and Crafts stained-glass windows, including windows by Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and Henry Holiday. Two stained glass windows were designed by Burne-Jones and executed by William Morris in Surrey. The windows depict Faith, Charity and Hope and are in memory of the Revd Thomas Sadler and his wife Mary.
Another window from 1888 reflects Burne-Jones’s earlier style and the influence on him of the Italian Renaissance. The window depicting Truth and Mercy was originally in the Unitarian Church in Kensington and commemorates the Liberal politician Sir John Brunner (1865-1929).
The Matthew Copley Organ, with 2,000 pipes, has carved musical instruments on the front of the cases. The oak stalls or pews under the organ gallery and the oak font were carved by Ronald Potter Jones, a first cousin of Beatrix Potter, author of the Peter Rabbit stories. The stone font, said to date from the 14th century, came to Rosslyn Hill in 1948 and is thought to have come from the Temple Church in the City of London after World War II.
The pews were removed during further renovations in 1966. The organ was relocated to the gallery in the 1990s.
The chapel celebrated the 300th anniversary of worship in the first chapel on the site in 1992. As part of the celebrations, a coloured glass window was installed with a flame and chalice – the symbol of Unitarianism today.
The chapel is surrounded by flowers, trees and wide paths and sits among the lively mix of shops, cafés and pubs of Hampstead, just minutes from the open spaces of Hampstead Heath. It has a community hall, a terrace of three cottages, a manse and a car park. The chapel is also a popular recording venue.
The minister, the Revd Kate Dean, has an MA in Abrahamic Religions. She has worked with the Unitarian social action centre Simple Gifts in Bethnal Green and Lewisham Unitarians.
• Rosslyn Hill Chapel describes itself as ‘a spiritual home for open minds’, welcoming people of all religious and philosophical backgrounds. The Sunday morning service at 11 am typically includes readings, hymns, meditation, music and a sermon or reflection as well as a story for younger children. The Sunday evening gathering is at 7 pm.
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