Patrick Comerford
The news of the disaster in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana is heart-breaking and tragic. I cannot begin to imagine the painful grief that so many families are living with this weekend.
A verse from Saint John’s Gospel, ‘Anyone who comes to me I will never drive away’ (John 6: 37) is inscribed in French in the apse of the Swiss Church in London and expresses God’s unconditional love. It also summarises the calling of the Swiss Church in London to be a place of hope and belonging in the heart of the West End.
The Swiss Church in London is an inclusive community rooted in the Reformed tradition and open to people of all faiths and none. The church at 79 Endell Street sees itself as a place where worship, hospitality and creativity meet in the heart of Covent Garden. The work of the church is guided by its mission, enriched by its history, and sustained by the people who make up its congregation and by the wider community.
The Swiss Church in London, in its use of the many languages that reflect Swiss identity, also uses the names Eglise Suisse de Londres, Schweizerkirche in London, Chiesa Svizzera a Londra and Baselgia svizra a Londra.
The church is a place of worship, a community hub and a cultural venue for Swiss people and the wider London public and has served the Swiss community in London for more than 250 years.
The Swiss Church in London was formed in 1762 by a group of Swiss exiles, although most of them at that time were not officially Swiss as they had mainly come from Geneva, Vaud and Neuchâtel, then not part of the Swiss Confederation: Vaud joined as a full canton in 1803; Geneva, Neuchâtel and Valais joined the Swiss Confederation at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. This is the same part of Switzerland that includes Crans-Montana, a municipality and ski resort in the predominantly French-speaking district of Sierre in the canton of Valais, and the scene of the recent tragedy.
An early, significant family in the life of the church was the Vulliamy family, who originated in Switzerland. They included royal clockmakers in the 18th and 19th centuries, architects and engineers in the 19th and 20th centuries, and writers, artists and journalists in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The church was formed through the inspiration of the Swiss-born clockmaker (François) Justin Vulliamy (1712-1797) and the first Consistoire or Group of Anciens as they were then known. They rented a large room in Castle Street, Leicester Fields, and appointed Antoine Bugnion from Lausanne as their first pastor. The church soon became a spiritual home for Swiss expatriates and a centre of help for poor Swiss migrants in London.
After appeals for funds and some financial aid from Geneva and Berne, the first purpose-built ‘Helvetic Chapel’ was built in 1775 near Moor Street in Soho. It remained the focal point for the Swiss community in London for 80 years, when the congregation was mainly French-speaking.
The church played an important role at the time in the protection of the Swiss abroad. They had no consular representation until 1817, and they relied on the pastor to sign any important documents regarding their status, including ‘pass-ports’.
The present church on Endell Street dates from 1853-1855 and was built after much planning and fundraising in England and Switzerland. The Swiss Church is a Grade II listed building designed by the architect George Vulliamy and built in 1853-1854.
Endell Street, originally known as Belton Street, runs from High Holborn in the north to Long Acre and Bow Street, Covent Garden, in the south. Other buildings on the street from this time include the Cross Keys, a well-known pub in Covent Garden, a long tall narrow building built on the west side of the street in the 1840s.
George John Vulliamy (1817-1886) designed some buildings in Victoria Street London, several fire-brigade stations, the pedestal and sphinxes for Cleopatra’s Needle on the Thames Embankment, the sturgeon lamp posts or ‘Dolphin Lamp Posts’ that line the Embankment, and the camel benches by the Embankment that were inspired by his travels to Egypt in the 1840s.
Vulliamy was a son of the royal clockmaker Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy (1780-1854), a nephew of the architect Lewis Vulliamy (1791-1871), and great-grandson of Justin Vulliamy (1712-1797), one of the founding figures in the Swiss Church in London.
George Vulliamy was born in London on 19 May 1817 and was educated at Westminster School before being articled to Joseph Bramah & Son, engineers, in 1833. In July 1836 he joined the office of Sir Charles Barry, and remained there until 1841. He then went abroad, and visited France, Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt. While travelling, he was employed by Henry Gally Knight to make drawings for his Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy (1842-1844).
Vulliamy returned to England in 1843, began practising as an architect, later assisting his uncle, Lewis Vulliamy. He designed the Swiss Protestant church on Endell Street in 1853-1855. He became superintending architect to the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1861, and his work for the board included designing some buildings in Victoria Street, several fire-brigade stations, and the pedestal and sphinxes for Cleopatra’s Needle on the Embankment. He died on 12 November 1886.
The centenary celebrations of the founding of the Swiss Church brought together several hundred Swiss at the church in 1862.
German-speaking churches in London were closed during World War I in 1914-1918, and a growing number of German Swiss exiles came to the church in Endell Street to worship. Swiss German speakers branched out in 1924 to form a separate church, the Schweizerkirche, but without their own building. They began renting the Church of Saint Agnes and Saint Anne in the City of London, and had their own governing body, the Kirchenpflege.
A major fire in 1930 almost destroyed the Endell Street church, which had to be virtually rebuilt. The French and German churches merged in 1938, but still they continued to function as two separate parishes. The church building suffered from bomb damage during the Blitz in World War II and underwent major rebuilding in 1946-1949.
The church continued to have a pastor and an assistant pastor as did the Schweizerkirche. But numbers began to decline at the end of the 20th century. By 1969, one pastor sufficed for both language communities, and both French and German Swiss worshipped at Endell Street.
A major building project began in 2000, leading to a renovation and transformation in 2008-2011. The project, designed by Christ & Gantenbein, restored and enhanced the building, making it versatile and extending it beyond the traditional use of a church. The church is now a light, quiet and spacious place in the busyness of London life.
A central and striking feature of the renovation is the new, fully mechanical organ, built by Späth Orgelbau from Rapperswil. The new organ has 676 pipes made of wood, spruce or tin, varying in length from 1.8 cm to 2.4 metres.
The Swiss Church says its lives its faith openly, humbly and generously, welcoming people from all faith traditions and none. ‘We are a place of belonging for people regardless of age, race, gender or sexual orientation.’
The Sunday services, concerts and art exhibitions create opportunities to explore the Christian faith, and the church says it seeks to respond to the question posed by Dietrich Bonhoeffer: ‘Who Christ is for us today?’
The Revd Manuel Zimmermann Grey is the Minister of the Swiss Church in London. He studied theology at the University of Bern and Durham University, where he met his wife, the theologian Professor Carmody Grey of Durham University and the Laudato Si’ Research Institute at Campion Hall, Oxford. He was ordained in the Reformed Church in Bern in 2023.
Services are on the first and third Sunday of the month at 11 am. The service on the first Sunday includes Holy Communion, sermons are in English, and some parts of the liturgy are in French and German. The hymns are accompanied by the Director of Music, Peter Yardley Jones, and include traditional and modern hymns in German, French and English.
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