Patrick Comerford
Today is the Feast of the Annunciation [25 March 2025], and one of the churches in London I visited in recent weeks is the Church of the Annunciation near Marble Arch and close to Oxford Street. The architectural historian Sir Niklaus Pevsner said that to enter the church is to have stumbled upon ‘a fragment of a major medieval church’.
The Church of the Annunciation is between Bryanston Square and Montagu Square in the neoclassical Portman Estate, developed by Henry William Portman in the 18th century. It is a Grade II* listed building at the south end of Marylebone, and is a Gothic Revival church designed by Sir Walter Tapper and built in 1912-1914.
The area around the church was originally known as Tyburn, from its location near a small bourne or rivulet, once known as Ayebrook or Eye-brook, and later known as Tybourn-brook, that flowed into the Thames.
The parish church, Saint Mary’s Church, stood where Marylebone Parish Church now stands. Saint Mary’s came to be known as Saint Mary at the Bourn, giving its name to Saint Mary le bone, or Marylebone. The city of London contracted Sir Gilbert de Sandford in 1236 to draw water from Tyburn Springs that he owned to serve as the first piped water supply for the city.
Tyburn became notorious from 1196 as a place of execution. The Tyburn Tree was erected in 1571 and remained in some shape or form until 1783. A number of Roman Catholics martyrs were executed there during the Reformation.
The Portman family became the local landowners in the 16th century, when Sir William Portman (1498-1557) acquired 270 acres in 1532. The estate was later developed by Henry William Portman (1738-1796).
The Church of the Annunciation stands on the site of a chapel of ease built by Lord Portman in 1787. It was named the Quebec Chapel after the street on which it stood, and the street in the turn had acquired its name after General Wolfe captured the city of Quebec in 1759.
According to a contemporary report, the chapel was ‘a square, ugly edifice … with no pretensions to ecclesiastical fitness.’ It is said the original chapel was converted from the riding school of the nearby Portman Barracks – although this is probably untrue.
The perpetual curates or priests in charge of the Quebec Chapel included:
• Henry Alford (1810-1871), hymn-writer and author of ‘Come, ye thankful people, come’, patron of Pugin and later Dean of Canterbury (1857-1871);
• Edward Meyrick Goulburn (1818-1897), afterwards Dean of Norwich (1866-1899);
• John Hampden Gurney (1802-1862), who gives his name to Hampden Gurney School, established in 1863 as a memorial to the Reverend John Hampden Gurney, former Vicar of St Mary’s, Bryanston Square. The first school building was situated on Hampden Gurney Street in the parish of the Church of the Annunciation,
• and, in 1860-1861, William Connor Magee (1821-1891), who was born in Cork and later became Dean of Cork (1864-1868), Bishop of Peterborough (1868-1891) and briefly Archbishop of York (1891).
The interior of the chapel was redecorated in the 1850s in an elaborate Byzantine style by the architect Sir Arthur Blomfield (1829-1899), who was also the architect of Saint Barnabas Church, Jericho, Oxford (1869), Selwyn College, Cambridge (1882-1889), and the nave of Southwark Cathedral (1890-1897).
When he was the chaplain, the Revd Edward Bickersteth Ottley (1853-1910) raised a public subscription and the chapel was bought from the Portman Estate in 1894.
The chapel had fallen into disrepair by the early 20th century, and the congregation wanted to build a new church on the whole city block between Seymour Street and Bryanston Street, and between Great Cumberland Place and Quebec Street.
The Revd Bernard Day Douglas Shaw was the inspiration behind the new building. However, the original grand plan was halted due to the beginning of the World War I, resulting instead in a unique building that is both richly furnished and unfinished.
Sir Walter Tapper (1861-1935) was chosen as the architect of the new church, and the old chapel was demolished in 1911. Tapper was deeply religious with Anglo-Catholic convictions. His son later recalled that the Church of the Annunciation, a fine lofty building with something of the scale of a cathedral or a major medieval church, was Tapper’s favourite work.
Tapper was a Royal Academician, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and President of the Royal Institute of Architects. Tapper was a pupil of George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907), a leading designer of mediaeval revival architecture. He was chief assistant and then manager in the office of George Bodley and Thomas Garner before setting up his own practice.
Later, he became Surveyor to the Fabric of Westminster Abbey, where he is buried.
The Church of the Annunciation is in the Edwardian Gothic style. It is a tall red brick church in the Late Gothic Revival (or Edwardian Gothic) style. It features stone dressings and buttresses and a gabled bell tower.
Tapper’s street elevations of the Church of the Annunciation are windowless at ground level, but high windows and vaulting throughout give the interior spaciousness. The rich furnishings are in keeping with the Anglo-Catholic tradition.
The Rood supporting Christ on the Cross flanked by the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint John is in the shape of the rainbow, a symbol of the covenant between God and creation. The high triumphal crucifix over the arch is thought to have been made by Robert Bridgeman of Lichfield to designs by Tapper.
The high altar reredos was designed by Tapper and executed by John Charles Norman Bewsey (1880-1940). Bewsey, who trained with Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907), also designed the stained glass. A brass memorial to the Revd Bernard DD Shaw in the floor of the sanctuary is the only brass known to have been designed by Tapper, and was engraved by hand.
The organ case built by Sir Frederick Rothwell (1853-1944) was designed by Tapper and may be based on organ cases in Westminster Abbey designed by John Loughborough Pearson (1817-1897). Pearson, in turn, was the architect of Truro Cathedral (1879-1910) and the Fitzrovia Chapel (1890), London. He also restored Saint Lawrence’s Church, Towcester, added the two towers at the west end of Bristol Cathedral and designed additions to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1890.
The Stations of the Cross are by the Belgian sculptor Aloïs de Beule (1861-1935) of Ghent. They are plaster casts of originals in wood.
The Somerset Memorial in the north aisle is dedicated to Norman Somerset who was killed at the First Battle of Ypres (1914) at the age of 20.
The church also has furnishings brought from other churches. The lampidarium spanning the arch between the sanctuary and the Lady Chapel originally hung above the high altar of Saint Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, and was designed by AWN Pugin (1812-1852).
The single bell was cast in 1913 by John Warner and Sons of Spitalfields.
The church was dedicated by the Bishop of London, Arthur Winnington-Ingram, on 24 June 1914. World War I was imminent and there were rumours too that the Suffragettes had planned to disrupt the service.
The Marylebone Calvary War Memorial on the corner of Old Quebec Street and Bryanston Street is at the south-east corner of the church. The memorial is also by Walter Tapper and includes local names from World War I.
In the early 20th century, many of the people associated with the church were strongly opposed to the growing ecumenical movement. An interdenominational rally was held nearby in Hyde Park in May 1951 to coincide with the launch of the Festival of Britain. A number of Anglo-Catholic clergy and lay people, led by Revd Hugh Ross Williamson, who later became a Roman Catolic, organised a protest meeting at the Church of the Annunciation to express their opposition to bishops of the Church of England sharing a platform with Methodists, Baptists and other nonconformists.
In their opinion, these churches did ‘not accept the traditional Faith of the Church’. In a signed letter, they expressed the concern that ‘the participation of the Church of England may give the additional impression that Roman Catholics are the only religious body which defend the full Catholic Faith.’
The poet John Betjeman was among the signatories. He admitted to TS Eliot, a fellow Anglo-Catholic and a churchwarden of Saint Stephen’s, Gloucester Road, that he found the tone of the protest ‘somewhat extreme.’ But he declared ‘I have nailed my colours to the mast and cannot let down my co-signatories.’ Rose Macaulay, the author of The Towers of Trebizond (1956), also commented on the protest, expressing her dismay at opposition to the rally.
Betjeman later opened new premises of Hampden Gurney School in 1967. The school continues its strong links with the Church of the Annunciation, and the Vicar, Father Lincoln Harvey, is chair of the governing body.
The Church of the Annunciation has always been closely associated with the Anglo-Catholic movement and has a distinguished tradition of music and choral singing.
Father Lincoln Harvey has been the Vicar of the Church of the Annunciation since 2021. He is a former Assistant Dean and Lecturer in Systematic Theology at Saint Mellitus College, and the author of a number of books, including A Brief Theology of Sport.
• The Parish Mass on Sundays is at 10:30 am. The weekday services usually include Mass at 12:30 pm each day. The church is open from Monday to Friday between 10 am and 6 pm for private prayer.
