Peering through the keyhole, but is the Order of Malta Europe’s smallest microstate or an anomalous leftover?

The Aventine Keyhole is said to allow the curious to peer through three sovereign territories at once: the Order of Malta’s property, Italy, and Vatican City (Photograph: Order of Malta)

Patrick Comerford

I have been to some of the smallest states in Europe over the years. Both the Vatican and San Marino are completely landlocked within Italian territory, yet are sovereign entities themselves, with all the international rights and obligations that entails.

Malta is off the coast of Italy, but it too is a sovereign, independent, internationally recognised state and, unlike San Marino and the Vatican, it is a full member of the European Union.

I have missed out on visiting Monaco, Lichtenstein and Andorra, which are also counted as European microstates, although on one occasion I came close to standing on former Andorran sovereign territory when I stood on the steps of the court building in Perpignan, once the supreme court of Andorra although it is in French territory.

Cyprus, where I have worked and been on holiday, and Luxembourg, are too large, both in land territory and population numbers, to be bring the six European microstates up to eight in number. The Isle of Man, which I visited in my teens, and the many Channel Islands, such as Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney and Sark, are not fully sovereign as they are crown dependencies of the United Kingdom and they do not represent themselves in international bodies such as the UN.

The former Supreme Court of Andorra was once in the French city of Perpignan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

While the microstates have sovereignty over their own territory, there are small autonomous territories in Europe that, despite having more or less own independent government, executive branch, legislature, judiciary, police, and other trappings of independence, are nonetheless under the sovereignty of another state. Some of those anomalous places I have visited include Gibraltar, which is a British overseas territory surrounded by Spain, but not a separate independent state.

And I have been to places that are unusual, such as Mount Athos, the autonomous monastic community in Greece, often described as a monastic state and under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

In Cyprus, I have passed though Akrotiri and Dhekelia, which is a British overseas territory, and I have crossed the ‘Green Line’ in Nicosia into the so-called ‘Turkish Republic of Norther Cyprus’, hardly a microstate as it remains essentially the Turkish-occupied part of the divided island and its statehood is not recognised by the UN, the EU, any EU member state or in international law.

The border crossing between San Marino and Italy … the mountain republic is totally surrounded by Italian territory (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

At times, counting these places is like counting sheep in restless or sleepless moments in the night, and reminiscent of the 99 Ealing comedy Passport to Pimlico, which I was writing about the week before last (7 August 2026). But over the weekend, I found myself asking whether I had missed out on listing one European microstate that I may also have visited in the past.

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, to give the order its formal and legal name, is a sovereign entity in its title and in international law and it has diplomatic relations with many sovereign states and nations. It no longer has territory, and certainly not in Jerusalem, Rhodes, or Malta, all of which I have visited in the past. On the other hand, some of the order’s buildings in Rome, including its headquarters at the Magistral Palace, have special autonomous privileges in Italian law.

Although not a state, the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta is a sovereign entity under international law. It has permanent non-state observer status at the UN, it has full diplomatic relations, including embassies, with 115 states, it issues its own stamps, coins, passports and license plates, and it has its own army medical corps.

The Grand Master, who is elected for ten years, is known as the Prince and Grand Master, and is both the religious superior and the Sovereign of the Order of Malta, and also holds the title of Most Eminent Highness.

The biometric passports issued by the Order of Malta are diplomatic and service passports and are said to be among the rarest in the world, with only about 500 in total. They are reserved strictly for members of the government (Sovereign Council), diplomatic corps, and select humanitarian officials, and they are recognised in over 100 countries.

The Battle of Lepanto (1571) by Karel Škréta above the altar in the Church of Our Lady Beneath the Chain, a church linked to the Knights of Malta in Prague (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Two friends on Facebook were having a discussion the weekend before last about the international status of the Order of Malta. One suggested that the Order of Malta, rather than the Vatican, is technically the pedantic correct answer to the question, ‘What is the world’s smallest state?’

Unlike the Holy See, which is sovereign over the Vatican City, the Order of Malta has no territory. However, its headquarters in the Palazzo Malta on Via dei Condotti and the Villa Malta on the Aventine Hill are granted extraterritoriality by Italy, and Malta extends the same status to the order’s historical headquarters in Fort St Angelo.

The Aventine Keyhole is a famous peephole in the green door of the Villa del Priorato di Malta in Rome. Looking through the keyhole gives sight of a perfectly manicured garden hedge framing the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica. This unique spot is said to allow the curious to peer through three sovereign territories at once: the order’s property, Italy, and Vatican City.

The Aventine Hill is one of the Seven Hills on which ancient Rome was built. I stayed once in Sant’Anselmo, the Benedictine Abbey on the Aventine Hill, as a guest during a conference on the Church in China. The campus includes Sant’Anselmo Abbey, the offices of the Benedictine Confederation, the residence of the Abbot Primate, the College of Sant’Anselmo, as well as the Church of Sant’Anselmo.

The campus faces onto the Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, the square on the Aventine Hill created in 1764 by the architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Outside, on the square, tourists queue up in long lines to peer through the keyhole of the ‘Buco della Serratura’ as they are told that are standing in one state (Italy), looking through another one (Order of Malta), and seeing a third (Vatican).

The former Palace of the Grand Masters in Valletta is now the office of the President of Malta (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I have visited the former Palace of the Grand Masters in Rhodes. The Knights of Rhodes were expelled from the island by the Ottoman Turks in 1522, and the surviving knights sailed first to Crete, then under Venetian rule, as a staging and regrouping point before moving on to Sicily and eventually Malta, becoming the Knights of Malta. They lost their last footholds in Crete in 1669. The knights were expelled from Malta by Napoleon in 1798, and the former Palace of the Grand Masters in Valletta is now the office of the President of Malta.

Ever since, the Magistral Villa has been at the heart of the Order of Malta’s institutional life, welcoming heads of state, ambassadors and visitors from around the world. It is home to Piranesi’s Church of Santa Maria in Aventino and to the keyhole framing the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica.

No passport checks are needed for this experience – but then I’ve never been asked for a passport going in or out of the Vatican or San Marino either. Unlike Monaco, San Marino or Andorra, neither the Vatican nor the Order of Malta has an international football team or football league. Monaco has own international team, but AS Monaco plays in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football, and very successfully too. San Marino is currently the lowest-ranked FIFA-affiliated national football team, having won only three matches since their inception. Its chances might improve dramatically if either the Vatican or San Marino decided to sign up, and perhaps signing up the Order of Malta might even increase the moral tone of the pressure on Gianno Infantino to stand down.

As for the knights’ former territories, Rhodes is a part of Greece and Malta is a sovereign, independent EU-member state. And Air Malta is not the air force of the Knights of Malta – its a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ryanair, and it operates scheduled flights on behalf of Ryanair. It’s more like the ‘Nights of Malta’ and the nearest you get to an order, I suppose, is the orderly queueing for ‘Priority’ and ‘Non-Priority’ boarding.

Malta Air … more like the ‘Nights of Malta’ than the ‘Knights of Malta’, flies the flag for Ryanair (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 114, Sunday 30 August 2026, Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIII)

‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16: 25) … a Crucifixion icon by Hanna-Leena Ward in her recent exhibition in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

This is the August bank holiday weekend here. We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIII, 30 August 2026). Later this morning, I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16: 25) … ‘The Passion’, a sculpture by Enzo Plazzotta in Saint Bene’t’s Church, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Matthew 16: 21-28 (NRSVA):

21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ 23 But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

27 ‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’

‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross’ (Matthew 16: 25) … Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross, Station 5 in the Chapel, Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield, (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

There is a wonderful contrast today in the Gospel reading and the Epistle reading between the Apostle Peter, who gets it wrong, and the Apostle Paul, who gets it right.

On the previous Sunday [23 August 2026], in the Gospel reading, we saw how Saint Peter could get it right with his confession of faith, a rock-solid faith that had firm foundations. This week, Saint Peter becomes a stumbling block because he thinks Christ has come to defeat those he sees as the enemies of the people, and he wants to share in the victory he hopes Christ will win. From rock to stumbling block in the space of a week.

Saint Peter is going to share in Christ’s victory, but it is not that kind of victory. It is a victory won not by killing enemies, but by forgiving them. It is a victory won on the cross, and Saint Peter will share it when he is ready to take up his cross and follow Christ.

On the other hand, Saint Paul, who once used rocks and stones in a very different way – at the stoning of the first, early Christian martyrs – now provides us with his own concise summary of Christianity faith, life and love. It reads like his own retelling of the Sermon on the Mount, or Christ reading in the synagogue in Nazareth (see tomorrow’s Gospel reading, Luke 4: 16-30).

Saint Paul tells us: ‘Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour’ (Romans 12: 9-10).

Christ has been teaching the disciples about their mission and how to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God. Now, as he prepares them to go up to Jerusalem, his emphasis shifts to teaching them that he must suffer, die and be raised from the dead on the third day.

The Apostle Peter has already grasped in last Sunday’s reading that Christ is ‘the Messiah, the Son of the living God’ (verse 16, see Matthew 16: 13-20, 23 August 2026). Now, however, he fails to grasp or refuses to accept the concept of the Messiah suffering and dying, rather than leading them to freedom glory.

There is a harsh, terse response from Christ: ‘Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

Peter who is a rock becomes a stumbling block, literally a scandal (σκᾰ́νδᾰλον, skandalon; see Leviticus 19: 14); Peter who has attempted to walk on water does not grasp what it means to walk with Christ on the road to Jerusalem; Peter who is to receive the keys of the kingdom fails to grasp the key to understanding Christ’s Messiahship; later, Peter who is present at the Transfiguration, is also going to deny Christ three times at his passion.

Christ then talks to the disciples about the cost of discipleship. To be his followers, we must be willing to take up the same cross, we must be willing to devote our whole lives to God, denying ourselves, giving up physical comforts and safety, accepting even death if necessary.

Jesus then asks a rhetorical question. Nothing that we can gain can add to the value of our future with God.

There will be a time of reckoning, when Christ comes in glory at the end of time, on the Day of Judgment, when Christ comes, ushering in his kingdom.

‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16: 25) … a crucifix in the North Transept in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 30 August 2026, Trinity XIII):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 30 August to 5 September 2026 (pp 34-35), is ‘Anglican Youth Tackle Waste in Madagascar’. This theme is introduced today with a Programme Update by Ialy Tongasoa, Community Development Lead, Diocese of Toliara, Madagascar:

In Madagascar, huge amounts of waste are left untreated – clogging rivers, polluting land, and threatening both health and fragile ecosystems. Across Fort-Dauphin, and other parts of southern and northern Madagascar, Anglican dioceses have trained over 100 young advocates in practical ways to manage waste and tackle climate change. Workshops include hands-on sessions in composting organic waste, recycling plastics into useful products, and sensitising communities. The diocesan bishops also led Bible study sessions exploring the theological importance of caring for God’s creation, linking faith directly to environmental action.

Youth are central to this programme because they bring energy, creativity, and influence across their communities, and by learning sustainable practices early, they become lifelong stewards of God’s creation. With guidance from church leaders and local environmental specialists, the youth are taking these skills into their neighbourhoods – encouraging recycling, using smart bins, and even generating income from recycled materials.

When Kakafoharisoa Gabriel Fabriano from Mananjary joined the Smart Waste We Care programme, he never imagined how much he could learn. ‘Before the workshop, I knew waste could be recycled but didn’t know how. Now I can turn organic waste into compost and plastic waste into paving materials. I am ready to help my community and share what I have learned,’ he says.

To find out more about this year’s Harvest Appeal and climate action in Madagascar, visit harvest.uspg.org.uk

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 30 August 2026, Trinity XIII) invites us to pray as we read and meditate on today’s Gospel reading, Matthew 16: 21-28.

‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16: 25) … the Crucifixion scene on the rood screen in Saint Saviour’s Church, Pimlico (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who called your Church to bear witness
that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:
help us to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may be drawn to you;
through him who was lifted up on the cross,
and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God our creator,
you feed your children with the true manna,
the living bread from heaven:
let this holy food sustain us through our earthly pilgrimage
until we come to that place
where hunger and thirst are no more;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Almighty God,
you search us and know us:
may we rely on you in strength
and rest on you in weakness,
now and in all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16: 25) … the steel sculpture Crucifix created by the sculptor David Begbie in the Barn Chapel, Walsingham (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Victoria Coach Station in London is jaded and tired, but was once an influential Art Deco work of architecture

Victoria Coach Station at the corner of Buckingham Palace Road and Elizabeth Street is an Art Deco landmark designed by the architect Thomas Wallis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

I was looking at the Victoria Library, a Victorian library near Victoria Station, in a posting yesterday. On the facing street corner site of Buckingham Palace Road and Elizabeth Street, Victoria Coach Station at 164 Buckingham Palace Road is one of London’s most prominent Art Deco landmarks.

With its soaring art-deco frontage, Victoria Coach Station harkens back to a more stylish era in public transport. It was built for London Coastal Coaches, known simply as Coastal, and was designed by the architect Thomas Wallis (1873-1953) of Wallis, Gilbert & Partners.

Wallis originally began working as a grocer’s assistant. He was articled to Sidney RJ Smith (1858-1913), who designed the National Gallery of British Art on Millbank, now Tate Britain, and in his early career worked for the Office of Works designing public buildings.

He was introduced in 1916 to the American engineer and architect Moritz Kahn (1879-1939) and his brother Julius Kahn (1874-1942) who pioneered the ‘Kahn trussed bar’ in the US, a method of concrete reinforcement, and the ‘Kahn daylight system’, a basic structure of concrete column, beam and slab, infilled by glazed units. The system was used extensively in the US, mainly in building large factory buildings.

Wallis was also influenced by American approaches to employee welfare and production need and he transformed design for industry and transport in the 1920s and 1930s. By the early 1930s, Wallis, Gilbert & Partners had become ‘specialists in industrial buildings’, responsible for many outstanding buildings of the inter-war period.

The identity of Gilbert in the name of the partnership has never been established, and ‘Gilbert’ may even have been an invention by Wallis to add an appearance of gravitas to his business.

Wallis considered the symbolic potential of buildings and saw a striking façade as free advertising for a business and its goods. He described his style, which featured large, adaptable spaces behind elaborate Art Deco façades, as ‘Fancy’, seen in his ‘fancy’ factories built in 1927-1935, with coloured glazed ceramic decorations and Egyptian styling.

His notable interwar projects include the first purpose-built recording studios in the world at Abbey Road, St John’s Wood (1930-1931). His other works include the Grade II* listed Hoover factory in Perivale, West London, described by Historic England as ‘possibly the most significant arterial road factory of its date’, although the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner has described it as ‘perhaps the most offensive of the modernistic atrocities’ in the area. It was recently converted to residential use.

Wallis’s other designs in the 1920s and the 1930s include the now demolished former Firestone Tyre Factory in Brentford and factories for Wrigley’s chewing gum, EMI, Glaxo, Hayes Cocoa Ltd and Coty Cosmetics.

Wallis drew up his plans for the new coach station in January 1931 in his offices in South Kensington, and it was built by Wilson Lovatt & Sons of Wolverhampton. The new station was formally opened on 10 March 1932 by the Minister of Transport and Liberal MP Sir Percy John Pybus (1880-1935). With parking and loading space for up to 80 coaches, Victoria Coach Station was said to be the largest coach station in the world at the time.

The central tower is recognised for its distinctive art deco style and was admired for its beauty and strength. Its concrete was reportedly made by combining cement with recycled coloured glass. The passenger facilities includied a booking hall, shops and refreshment spaces. The site operated a one-way system, with buses and coaches entering from Buckingham Palace Road and exiting onto Elizabeth Street.

Wallce wanted his buildings to have good amenities for the workers, and a notable feature of his Victoria Coach Station was the staff restaurant, where a good meal could be had for a shilling. There was a 200-seat restaurant with a dance floor, painted pale green and pink with a gold spray.

In addition to the offices for London Coastal Coaches, there were private offices on the upper floors. Wallis, Gilbert and Partners were based there from 1933 until Wallis retired in 1946. Other tenants of these upper floor offices included the architect Wells Coates, decorators Mollo and Egan, and the Inland Revenue.

Although Wallis’s designs were controversial and his approach to architecture was considered unconventional by his contemporaries, he revolutionised how architects considered workers and incorporated their needs and welfare into plans and designs. He is commemorated with a blue plaque at Victoria Coach Station, which he designed, and where the Wallis, Gilbert and Partners had their offices.

Victoria Coach Station was listed as a Grade II building by Heritage England in 2014 for its architectural and historic interest. These days it sends 10 million or passengers to 1,200 destinations across the UK and 400 throughout Europe every year.

Sadly, time has not been kind to the coach station, now almost 100 years old, and it has become a shadow of its former self. The entrance and interior of Victoria Coach Station have been changed over time and it has also lost its decorative faience. Indeed, I might wonder whether its listing may have been too late to save the original fabric of the building.

The Victoria Library near Victoria Station is a gem of Victorian architecture first built as a parish library

The Victoria Library at the corner of Buckingham Palace Road and Elizabeth Street was designed by the architect Abert J Bolton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

In my walk around Belgravia and Pimlico earlier this month, the impressive works of architecture I wanted to see include the streets and squares designed and laid out by Thomas Cubitt for the Grosvenor estate, with their elegant Victorian and Edwardian terraces, Saint Peter’s Church on Eaton Square, Gothic churches such as Saint Saviour’s, Saint Gabriel’s and Saint Michael’s, and Victoria Station with its Imperial Baroque Revival version of the French Renaissance style.

But as I watched the daily rush, I wondered how many commuters notice the Victoria Library at 160 Buckingham Palace Road, an architecturally attractive building on the corner with Elizabeth Street and close to both Victoria Station and Victoria Coach Station?

The Victoria Library is a Grade II building designed in 1892-1894 by the architect Abert J Bolton as the public lending library for the parish of Saint George’s, Hanover Square. It was built on land given by Hugh Lupus Grosvenor (1825-1899), first Duke of Westminster, and was designed by Bolton after a design competition.

Bolton is best known for his work for the Grosvenor estate in 1889-1895 at 87-102 Mount Street with a return into South Audley Street, purpose-built shops and flats that form what is regarded as one of the finest listed terraces in central London.

The reconstruction of Mount Street began when Bolton won a limited competition in 1884-1885 for a Vestry Hall for Saint George’s Parish on the site of No 103 after Saint George’s Vestry bought the freehold. He then built the adjacent Nos 87-102 to the west, together with the deep return plot to South Audley Street and the library in Chapel Place North. The Duke of Westminster had hoped but failed to get Bolton to follow the designs of Ernest George and Harold Peto at 104-111 Mount Street, on the other side of the vestry hall.

The Victoria Library on Buckingham Palace Road, designed by AJ Bolton, is of special architectural interest because of the quality of its exuberant Queen Anne exterior with its stone dressings on the façade, terracotta dressings to the rear and its substantially complete interior, with a surviving book hoist and galleries and ornamental ironwork.

The library is also a relatively early example of an institution like this in London. Public libraries from the late 19th and early 20th century survive in good numbers in England and a number of them are of special architectural interest as reflections of the civic or philanthropic pride that created them.

Libraries dating from 1850 to 1914, such as Bolton’s Victoria Library, often show a good degree of articulate architectural expression, and some retain interior details and even may remain substantially unaltered and without extension.

The Victoria Library on Buckingham Palace Road was built of red brick laid in a Flemish bond with Portland Stone dressings, and some terracotta to the rear, and it has a slate roof behind a lowered parapet.

Bolton’s plan is of a three-part composition with two double-height halls to the rear, an entrance foyer, a stair hall and two-storey-and-attic accommodation to the front.

The Buckingham Palace Road façade is a three-bay composition with a central porch carrying a four-light mullion and transom window breaking forward with a narrow single lights to either side.

The lettering carved in the stonework between the ground and first floors reads ‘SG HS Public Library’, the initials meaning Saint George’s Hanover Square. There are four-light mullion and transom casement windows at either side. The windows on the first floor have Corinthian pilasters and a frieze, while those on the second floor have a greater profusion of pilasters, set over the cornice.

The rear elevation has two brick gables with double-height windows, and the one furthest south has an oculus window above. Before and set between the gables is a projecting porch that leads to the ‘Reading Room’ that is signposted in terracotta along with the date 1892. The inscription forms part of an imposing pedimented terracotta door case topped by finials.

The highly decorative wrought iron railings at the front are consistent with the similar railings seen along the adjacent terrace.

Inside, the Victoria Library has a coffered ceiling above the vestibule, leading to a foyer from which rises a straight single-flight stair with cast-iron balustrade, and there is some panelling to reading area in the inner foyer. There is a geometric ribbed moulded decorative plaster ceiling in the first floor rooms of the front block.

The lending library, which is the former reading room, has a first floor gallery on three sides supported on columns with a cast-iron balustrade under an open timber clerestoried roof comprised of three queen post trusses, with the posts formed of small classical columns.

The former lending library has a gallery with a more elaborate ironwork balustrade and its original fixed shelving. This hall also retains the original book hoist: there books for lending that were not openly accessible to the public had to be ordered from the catalogues once located in the hall - this is now an extremely rare feature for a library.

I can hardly imagine members of the royal family taking a stroll from Buckingham Palace along Buckingham Palace to borrow books from the Victoria Library or to browse the shelves of their local library. But the Victoria Library remains an architecturally attractive building and a centre for reading, research and community interaction. As well as its core book collection, it has a flexible cultural space that hosts diverse local activities, including community workshops and readings.

Around the corner and close-by on Elizabeth Street, the Thomas Cubitt is a Georgian pub whose name is a reminder of Thomas Cubitt, the master builder who was instrumental in developing the streets and squares of Belgravia and Pimlico.

Almost beside the Victoria Library, on the facing corner site of Buckingham Palace Road and Elizabeth Street, Victoria Coach Station at 164 Buckingham Palace Road is one of London’s most prominent Art Deco works . But more about that landmark building, hopefully, tomorrow.

The name of the Thomas Cubitt is a reminder of the master builder who developed the streets and squares of Belgravia and Pimlico (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint John’s Church, Wilton Road, a lost church near Victoria station and a tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright

A tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright at 129 Wilton Road, Victoria, the site of Saint John’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

It would be easy to walk past 129 Wilton Road in Victoria, thinking it is just one more commercial office building in the City of Westminster. The building is close to Victoria Station and home to corporate tenants like Trident Energy and the events company IQPC.

But as they rush to and from Victoria Station, commuters may not notice the terrace above on the first floor of 129 Wilton Road or realise that the commercial and office building has been inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and designed to provide a mixture of open plan or collaborative and quiet workspace with break-out zones and meeting rooms.

Were we alone in noticing the large, tall sculpted stonework by the entrance? It is engraved with the words ‘Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children – Frank Lloyd Wright’.

Perhaps the building was designed as a tribute to the great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1957). But I was interested in it first because it is site of the former he Church of Saint John the Evangelist, destroyed during the Blitz in World War II.

Saint John’s Church was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield and built in 1874 (Photograph: A Corbett / Saint Peter’s)

I was in Pimlico and Belgravia last week, visiting a number of churches in the area, including Saint Peter’s Church, Eaton Square, Saint Saviour’s Church, Saint George’s Square, and Saint Gabriel’s Church, Warwick Square.

Wilton Road is on land between Pimlico and Victoria that was once part of the larger Grosvenor Estate. The street was named after Lady Eleanor Egerton, daughter of Thomas Egerton (1749-1814), 1st Earl of Wilton, who married Robert Grosvenor (1767-1845), 1st Marquess of Westminster.

Saint John’s Church, Wilton Road, was consecrated in 1874 as a chapel of ease to Saint Peter’s, Eaton Square, in order to reach out to the poor in the heavily populated area around Victoria Station.

The Revd George Howard Wilkinson (1833-1907), who was the Vicar of Saint Peter’s, Eaton Square, in 1870-1883, wished the church to be open to all. It was built with some difficulty on soft ground where barges used to unload their goods from the Grosvenor Basin, and this needed a foundation built on piles.

Fundraising for building the new church attracted a donation of £2,000 from Hugh Grosvenor (1825-1899), 1st Duke of Westminster, while he attending Saint Peter’s Church one Sunday morning, and Queen Victoria donated £150, on the grounds that she was a parishioner.

The church was built on the west side of Wilton Road, between Hudson’s Place and Gillingham Street. The building stood on the site that is now No 129 Wilton Road, Pimlico. It was designed in the Early Gothic style by the architect Sir Arthur Blomfield (1829-1899), who at the time was working on Saint Peter’s Church, Eaton Square, when he enlarged and reordered in 1875, adding a chancel at the east end and north and south transepts, and ‘fiercely normanised’ the interior.

Blomfield’s other works include Saint Luke’s Chapel at the former Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford (1864), Saint Barnabas Church, Jericho, Oxford (1869), Selwyn College, Cambridge (1882-1889), rebuilding the nave of Saint Saviour’s Church, now Southwark Cathedral (1890-1897), and Saint Saviour’s Church, Arklow, Co Wicklow (1899).

Inside Saint John’s Church, Wilton Road, once known for its quiet reverence and absence of fussiness (Photograph: A Corbett / Saint Peter’s)

Saint John’s Church on Wilton Road was built in brick with stone dressings, with a broad nave, a short chancel, and a thin square tower topped by a squat slate spire. Embellishments were added in succeeding years, including mosaics, a marble high altar and triptych, seven sanctuary lamps in the Anglo-Catholic style, and textiles designed by the architect George Frederick Bodley (1827-1907).

Saint John’s had a ring of eight bells, supplied by John Warner and Sons. They were dedicated on 2 October 1878 by the Archdeacon of London, Piers Claughton (1814-1884), former Bishop of Saint Helena and of Colombo. The bells were later removed when they proved to be too heavy, although some sources they were lost with the church during the Blitz in 1940.

Wilkinson later became Bishop of Truro (1883-1891), Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane (1893-1907), and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church (1904-1907).

Meanwhile, Saint John’s became a popular and thriving church in the late 19th century and into the 20th century, with a strong preaching and teaching tradition and a congregation drawn from across London.

It is said the church was known for its work, quiet reverence and absence of fussiness. The Eucharist was the main Sunday service, and Eucharistic vestments were adopted in 1908 – by then, they were in use at Saint Peter’s for over a decade.

Many men from Saint John’s were killed during World War I, and during those years there was a shortage of clergy and little money.

After the war, incense was introduced into the liturgy in 1924, and the sacrament was reserved. A large bronze crucifix was set up facing Wilton Street as a War Memorial, which is now on the south wall of Saint Peter’s Church, near the side entrance to the church office and the Knightsbridge Kindergarten.

When World War II broke out in 1939, the church was first closed, as it was too far from an air raid shelter. It then reopened for weekday masses, with Sunday services taking place in Saint Peter’s.

Saint John’s Church received a direct hit on Friday 11 October 1940 and was mostly destroyed. The remains were pulled down a few years later. The valuable vestments were restored and other items from the interior that survived were given to Saint Peter’s and other churches.

The engraved inscription at the entrance to 129 Wilton Road is ascribed to the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the most influential figures in the architectural movements of the 20th century. He believed in designing in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture.

But the quotation is a well-known saying about stewardship of the environment for future generations sustainability. It is variously attributed to Crazy Horse, or as an ancient proverb, or a Native American or Kenyan saying. Written records trace variations of it to mid-20th century environmental campaigns and indigenous advocacy, but in Jewish tradition there is also a similar saying in the Midrash: ‘Take care not to spoil or destroy My world, for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you’ (Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:13).

The revolving door at the entrance to 129 Wilton Road obscures the engraved words and makes them difficult to read. Perhaps the building could do with an explanatory panel, and a plaque recalling Saint John’s Church, which stood on the site for 66 years from 1874 to 1940.

No 129 Wilton Road may have been designed as a tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright (Photograph: www.129wiltonroad.com)

Saint Peter’s Church, Eaton Square, is ‘one of the most beautiful churches’ in the ‘most expensive place in London’

Saint Peter’s Church is at the east end of Eaton Square, has been described as ‘one of the most beautiful churches in London’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

During my visit to Pimlico and Belgravia last week, I visited three interesting churches in the area: Saint Gabriel’s Church, Warwick Square; Saint Saviour’s Church, Saint George’s Square; and Saint Peter’s Church, Eaton Square. In recent years, I have also visited Saint Michael’s Church, Chester Square.

Saint Peter’s Church is at the east end of Eaton Square, which is, in fact, an oblong about one-third of a mile long and arranged around six private garden squares covering 2.5 ha of Belgravia, close to Mayfair and Knightsbridge.

Eaton Square is part of the Grosvenor Estate and takes its name from Eaton Hall in Cheshire, the principal home of the Dukes of Westminster. Its origins go back to an Act of Parliament in 1826 that allowed Lord Grosvenor – who owned most of the land that now makes up Belgravia and Mayfair – to drain the ‘open and rural space known as the Five Fields and build a new and elegant town connecting London and Chelsea’.

Saint Peter’s Church, Eaton Square, was inspired by the west portico of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis in Athens (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Eaton Square was once named as the ‘most expensive place to buy property in Britain’. The residents have included former Prime Ministers Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain, actor Vivien Leigh, Austrian statesman Prince Metternich, philanthropist George Peabody and the exiled and deposed former Greek royal family.

James Bond’s fictional home was also in Eaton Square, while real-life residents in the past have included the Bond actor Sean Connery, film star Rex Harrison, Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi.

No 22 was once the childhood home of John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, who as Lord Lucan who was suspected of murdering his children’s nanny Sandra Rivett in 1974.

Inside Saint Peter’s Church, Eaton Square, rebuilt in 1990-1991 after a fire in 1987 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

If Eaton Square can be described as the ‘most expensive place to buy property in Britain’, then Saint Peter’s Church was once described in The Times ‘as one of the ost beautiful churches in London’ (19 October 1991).

Saint Peter’s is a neoclassical church designed by the architect Henry Hakewill with a hexastyle portico with six Ionic columns and a clock tower, and is a Grade II* listed building.

The architect Henry Hakewill (1771-1830) had a large practice, mostly involving English country houses. He was the architect to Rugby School, and also worked for the Radcliffe trustees in Oxford and the Middle Temple in London. His two Greek Revival buildings of note are Coed Coch (1804), a now-demolished country house in Denbighshire, Wales, and Saint Peter's Church, Eaton Square.

Saint Peter’s was first built in 1824-1827 during the early stages of the development of Eaton Square. This building burnt down, and the church was rebuilt in 1837 according to Hakewill’s drawings by Arthur William Hakewill (1808-1856) and Charles Jearrad. From its founding, Saint Peter’s, Eaton Square, was considered in Pimlico and until at least 1878 was usually recorded as Saint Peter’s, Pimlico.

Saint Peter’s was founded as a district a district church of Saint George’s, Hanover Square, in 1827, and remained so until 1844. It was the parish church of Saint Peter, Pimlico, from 1844 until 1954.

The High Altar and apse in Saint Peter’s Church, Eaton Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Peter’s is built of yellow stock brick and ashlar and stone dressings. It is a basilica-style church with a pedimented west portico, a narthex, tower and cupola, rectangular nave, chancel with small north and south transepts, and flanking chapels.

The hexastyle Ionic portico has six Ionic columns and a plain entablature that are inspired by the west portico of the Erechtheion on the north side of the Acropolis in Athens. Some years earlier, William Inwood (1771-1843) in his design of Saint Pancras New Church (1822) on Euston Road had been inspired by both the Tower of the Winds in Athens, with Ionic-style pillars at the west end, and two sets of caryatids that stand above the north and south entrances to the crypt, modelled by John Charles Felix Rossi (1762-1839).

The portico of Saint Peter’s is set on four steps, surmounted by a pediment. There are pilasters at the rear angles, three tall doorways with moulded architraves, and flat cornices on carved brackets, each with a pair of doors with fielded panels.

The tower is set on a wide stylobate with a tall plinth forming a clock stage, each face with a clock. At the bell stage, a louvred round arched opening is flanked by Ionic half columns with pilasters at the angles. The cupola is set between pedimented blocks at the angles and is surmounted by a gilded metal cross.

The interior was, as so often at the time, a ‘preaching box’, with galleries along three sides and the organ and choir at the west end. The architect James Elmes (1782-1862) described the effect as ‘chaste and simple’.

The original building was a commissioners’ church, receiving a grant from the Church Building Commission towards its cost. The full cost of the building was £22,427, the equivalent to more than £2 million today, with the commission paying £5,556.

Looking towards the west end of Saint Peter’s from the apse and High Altar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The church was enlarged in 1875, and reordered to designs by Sir Arthur Blomfield (1829-1899), who added a chancel at the east end and north and south transepts and ‘fiercely normanised’ the interior. Internally, Blomfield’s chancel and transepts are in a Romanesque Revival style, but externally they follow with Hakewill’s neoclassical style.

All of the parish of Christ Church, Broadway, and half of that of Saint Andrew’s Church, Ashley Place were merged into Saint Peter’s after they were both damaged beyond repair in the Blitz, with the other half of Saint Andrew’s parish going to Saint Stephen’s Church, Rochester Row.

The crypt with about 400 burials was cleared in 1951 and the remains were reinterred at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey. Since 1954, it has been the Parish of Saint Peter, Pimlico, with Christ Church, Westminster. Choristers for the choir were provided by London Choir School until 1958, when the choir school closed.

A statue of Saint Peter in Saint Peter’s Church, Eaton Square (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Almost 40 years ago, an anti-Catholic arsonist set fire to the east end of the church on 20 October 1987, in the mistaken belief that the building was a Roman Catholic church. Within hours the church was engulfed. By the next day the fire was out but only the Georgian shell of the building remained. It was roofless, with most of its furnishings destroyed. The church needed total rebuilding.

The Braithwaite Partnership of architects was commissioned to completely redesign the church with a new and simpler interior, and to incorporate within the site a vicarage, offices, flats for a curate, verger and music director, a meeting hall, nursery school rooms and a large playroom for the parish youth club.

Work on the new church began at Easter 1990, and the foundation stone of the new sanctuary was laid by the Duchess of Kent on 25 September 1990 and dedicated by Bishop John Klyberg of Fulham. The rebuilding work was completed in 1991, the church reopened on 20 October 1991, the fourth anniversary of the fire, and was reconsecrated by the Bishop of London, David Hope, on 7 May 1992.

The organ in Saint Peter’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Peter’s retains its grand Georgian portico but beyond that the interior is clean, bright and modern. The choir and organ are at the west end, as in the 1827 plan, but the fittings are thoroughly modern. The church is accessible and has disabled-accessible toilets.

The apse behind the altar is decorated entirely in gold mosaic. Around the side of the apse, part of the 1873 sanctuary that survived the fire can be seen, and also a side chapel now used as the vestry office, complete with stained glass.

Saint Peter’s has been described as ‘a serene sanctuary amidst the bustling cityscape … providing solace and spiritual nourishment for both residents and visitors.’ It is a venue for celebrated classical concerts in spring and autumn, and is known as a venue for society weddings. Lord Lucan’s daughter, the barrister Lady Camilla Bingham, and Michael Bloch were married in the church in 1998.

Saint Peter’s stands in the inclusive Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Church of England and serves a diverse community across Belgravia, Victoria, and Pimlico, with services using both the Book of Common Prayer and Common Worship. Father Jonathan Kester has been the Vicar of Saint Peter’s since 2022; the other clergy include Father Carlos Remotti-Breton, assistant curate, and Father Herbert Bennett, honorary associate priest.

The foyer and welcome area in the narthex in Saint Peter’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

• Sunday Services are: 8 am, Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer); 9:30 am, Family Eucharist; 11 am, Choral Eucharist. A Parish Eucharist at 10:30 am replaces the Family Eucharist and Choral Eucharist on some Sundays. Weekday services are: 8 am, Morning Prayer (except Wednesdays); 5 pm, Evening Prayer; 8 am Wednesdays, the Eucharist; 12.30 pm, Monday to Friday, the Eucharist.

Saint Peter’s is in the inclusive Anglo-Catholic tradition and serves a diverse community in Belgravia, Victoria, and Pimlico (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Saviour’s Church in Pimlico – a Victorian church one that once had the tallest spire in London

Saint Saviour’s Church on Saint George’s Square, Pimlico, designed by Thomas Cundy, once had one of the tallest spires in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

During my afternoon in Pimlico and Belgravia last week, I visited a number of churches in the area, including Saint Peter’s Church on Eaton Square, Saint Gabriel’s Church on Warwick Square, and Saint Saviour’s Church on Saint George’s Square.

Saint Saviour’s Church at the north end of Saint George’s Square is a church in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. It was built in the 1860s as part of Thomas Cubitt’s development of Pimlico on behalf of the Grosvenor Estate. Cubitt’s executors donated the site and the Duke of Westminster funded much of the building work.

The Grade II listed church was designed by the architect Thomas Cundy, who had previously built Saint Gabriel’s Church on Warwick Square, a short walk away in Pimlico. Like Saint Gabriel’s, Cundy designed Saint Saviour’s in the Decorated Gothic style and built it in ragstone with Bath stone dressings to emphasise the contrast with the classical stucco of the houses in the surrounding streets and squares of Pimlico.

Inside Saint Saviour’s Church on Saint George’s Square, Pimlico, facing the east end (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The first Vicar of Saint Saviour’s was the Revd John Walker, from 1864 to 1887. The foundation stone was laid on 16 June 1863 and the church was consecrated on 16 July 1864. The spire at 51.8 metres (170 ft) was once one of the tallest in London and remains a landmark visible from much of Pimlico today.

The church has a nave of six bays and a tower at the north-west corner. At first, the church interior was rather bare. Two long galleries extended from the chancel to the west end, there was no screen or pulpit, and just a small brass lectern. The organ was built by William Hill in 1864 and enlarged in 1892.

The rood screen and east end of Saint Saviour’s Church, Pimlico (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The furnishings in Saint Saviour’s include the high altar, chancel screen, pulpit and font with its handsome oak cover are particularly good examples of their type. The choirstalls are of oak and pine and probably date from 1864.

A major restoration was carried out in 1882 and a former churchwarden described it as ‘the beautifying of the church’. The galleries were taken down, the chancel was embellished with new arcading, steps and a reredos, and the East Window was filled with stained glass.

The work was supervised by the architect and artist Romaine Walker (1854-1940), son of the first vicar, the Revd John Walker. Further stained glass windows were completed after 1882 and further decorative work was added.

The High Altar, reredos and East Window in Saint Saviour’s Church, Pimlico (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

In the sanctuary, the reredos (1882) depicting the Last Supper was designed by Romaine Walker and carved by Thomas Earp.

The East Window (ca 1880) depicting Christ in Majesty and scenes from the Creation was also designed by Romaine Walker and made by Clayton and Bell, and is a dominant feature in the church. The oak rood screen was added in 1911.

The font was also designed by Romaine Walker, and the oak spire was added in 1885.

The side chapel was blessed in 1889, the sanctuary was decorated in 1891 and the clock was placed in the tower in 1895.

The reredos in Saint Saviour’s Church was designed by Romaine Walker (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

A number of new additions were made to the church when the Revd Henry Washington was the second vicar of Saint Saviour’s, from 1887 to 1912.

The church was specially cleaned in 1911, the coronation year of George V, and the steeple repaired at a cost of £250. The Lady Chapel baldacchino was added in 1913, by the architectural practice of Hubert Christian Corlette (1869-1956) and Sir Charles Archibald Nicholson (1867-1949).

A north vestry was added ca 1910-1913.

The Revd Henry Washington, second vicar of Saint Saviour’s, is commemorated by a window depicting Christ appearing to his Disciples by the Sea of Galilee (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The Revd Henry Washington’s life and ministry are commemorated by the chancel screen, the oak pulpit and two stained glass windows, including one depicting Christ appearing to his Disciples by the Sea of Galilee.

The stained glass windows include one depicting the first vicar, the Revd John Walker, and a window composed of fragments of glass that were damaged during World War II.

Other windows include one depicting three scenes from the life of Saint Peter (ca 1880), by Clayton and Bell; a window depicting Christ the True Vine (ca 1890), by Clayton and Bell; a window near the Lady Chapel with two scenes from the life of Saint Martin; and the ‘children’s window’ dating from the 1920s with a series of 12 scenes of angels and lambs.

The Mission Altar (ca 1910) in the side chapel in the north aisle was originally in the old Mission Church of the Holy Name in Aylesford Street. Above the altar, the scenes are believed to have been painted one of the sisters in the former Mission House.

The statues of the Madonna and Child (after Michelangelo) and Saint Saviour (referred to as the Sacred Heart but without an open heart) and the Stations of the Cross were brought in from Oberammergau in the 1930s and installed in the church.

he Mission Altar in the side chapel in the north aisle was originally in the Mission Church of the Holy Name in Aylesford Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Saint Saviour’s sustained some war damage during World War II. A brick church hall was added to the south in the 1950s.

Extensive cleaning of the exterior was carried out in the 1990s and new bells were installed in the tower. The south wall was cleaned and repaired in 1999, extensive areas of damaged plaster-work were restored, and the church was redecorated. During this work, the full extent of the decorative panels of the chancel ceiling was uncovered, and the panels were cleaned and restored.

The Lady Chapel has been reinstated in the south chancel-transept and the nave transepts have been cleared to create a feeling of space throughout the church.

The north vestry was refurbished in 2007 as the Pimlico Room, the sacristy was remodelled and modern accessibility features and toilets were added, and a mezzanine was installed in the sacristy to provide more space for the office and sacristy.

A major restoration programme began in 2016, including a new nave roof and the restoration of the William Hill organ.

Inside the Lady Chapel at the east end of the south aisle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Laurence Olivier’s father, Father Gerard Kerr Olivier, was a curate at Saint Saviour’s and Lord Olivier (1907-1989) was a choirboy and altar server. The founder of modern lawn tennis, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield (1833-1912), was a regular parishioner, and the writer Sir Compton Mackenzie (1883-1972) married Faith Stone in the church in 1905.

Saint Saviour’s church hall is in use almost every day of the week and is home to the Young England Kindergarten where Lady Diana Spencer worked before her marriage to the then Prince Charles. After her death in 1977, a tree was planted and a bench seat added in her memory.

Saint Saviour’s Church is open all day, five days a week, offering a welcoming and inspiring space for all.

The statue of the Virgin Mary at the entrance ti the Lady Chapel is after the Madonna of Bruges by Michelangelo (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

• Father Matthew Catterick has been the Vicar of Saint Saviour’s since 2011. He was ordained in 1995 and previously worked in parishes in Colchester, Leicester and Wembley. Sunday services are at 8 am, Said Mass, and 10:30 am, Sung Mass, and there is a Said Mass at 12:30 on weekdays.

Laurence Olivier was a choirboy and server at Saint Saviour’s when his father, the Revd Gerard Kerr Olivier, was a curate (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

An afternoon visit to Saint Gabriel’s Church, one of the listed churches in Victorian Pimlico

Saint Gabriel’s Church on Warwick Square, Pimlico, was designed by the younger Thomas Cundy and was consecrated in 1852 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Patrick Comerford

Pimlico has more than 350 Grade II–listed buildings and many Grade II* listed churches. The churches I visited during my stroll around Pimlico and Belgravia this week include Saint Gabriel’s Church on Warwick Square, Saint Saviour’s Church on Saint George’s Square, and Saint Barnabas Church, Saint Barnabas Street, as well as Saint Peter’s Church on Eaton Square, Belgravia, known as Saint Peter’s Pimlico until the 1870s.

Saint Gabriel’s Church on Warwick Square is a parish church in the Anglo-Catholic tradition in the Deanery of Westminster (Saint Margaret) and the Diocese of London. The Grade II* listed church was designed by Thomas Cundy (junior) and was built in 1851-1853 as part of Thomas Cubitt’s development of the area on behalf of the Grosvenor Estate.

I wanted to visit Saint Gabriel’s Church to see its Decorated Gothic architecture, the windows by Charles Eamer Kempe, the mosaics by Antonio Salvati of Venice, the stalls designed by Bridgeman of Lichfield, and because of its social mission and witness within the Anglican tradition. Sadly, it was not open when I arrived on Thursday afternoon, and I only caught a glimpse, albeit a somewhat but static satisfactory glimpse, through the doors in the narthex at the west end.

Inside Saint Gabriel’s Church, Warwick Square, Pimlico, designed by the younger Thomas Cundy and with additions by James Piers St Aubyn (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

In the early 19th century, Pimlico was part of the Parish of Saint George, Hanover Square, formed in 1725. The development of Belgravia, and subsequently Pimlico, by Thomas Cubitt, employed by the Grosvenor family began in the 1820s and gathered momentum. In 1827, the Parish of Saint Peter, Pimlico, was created out of which Saint Gabriel, Warwick Square, was carved in 1850.

Pimlico was rapidly expanding as a residential area between the 1840s to 1860s. Private legislation in 1850 provided that the new parish church would generate sufficient revenue from pew-rents to provide a repair fund, administrative expenses of the new parish, and a stipend for the incumbent. The principal local landlord, the Marquess of Westminster, granted £5,000 and the freehold of a plot at the south-west end of Warwick Square for building the new church.

The church was designed by the younger Thomas Cundy (1790-1867), who joined his father’s practice and succeeded him as surveyor of the Grosvenor Estate, working in that role during Thomas Cubitt’s development of Belgravia and Pimlico.

In later years Cundy worked mostly on building churches on the west side of London, including Holy Trinity Church, Paddington, Saint Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, Saint Michael’s Church, Chester Square, and Saint Barnabas’s, Saint Saviour’s and Saint Gabriel’s in Pimlico.

The High Altar in Saint Gabriel’s Church was designed by John Francis Bentley and the East Window is by Charles Eamer Kempe (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Cundy designed Saint Gabriel’s in the Decorated Gothic style, and John Kelk was the building contractor. The cost of building the new church was partly raised by subscription, with £5,000 from the Marquess of Westminster, who also gave the freehold of the site.

The church originally had galleries on three sides around the nave and could seat 1,150 people. It was consecrated by Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London, on 12 May 1852.

The spire was rebuilt and the choir vestry was added in 1887-1888 by the architect James Piers St Aubyn (1815-1895) and the chancel was substantially reordered and embellished in 1890-1897.

The pulpit in Saint Gabriel’s Church was designed by JP St Aubyn (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The church has a five-bay nave with clerestory, double aisles, the inner taller as lean-tos, the outer with individual gables bays. There is a lower, three-bay chancel, a gabled south-east chapel with a polygonal apse against south chancel wall, and a gabled vestry to north, with a taller gabled choir vestry beyond. There is also a south gabled porch, a west gabled porch or narthex, and a north porch below the south-west tower and spire.

The High Altar was designed by John Francis Bentley (1839-1902), the architect of Westminster Cathedral, and dedicated in 1890. It is of mahogany, with a carved panelled, painted and gilded frontal. The central panel shows Christ the King, flanked by Saint Gabriel and Saint Michael, and the outer panels angels against a gilded background.

The improvements in the chancel were funded mainly by Lord Edward Pelham-Clinton (1836-1907) as a memorial to his wife Matilda. They Including the reredos, chancel wall decoration, sedilia, communion rails, sanctuary and chancel paving. The floor is of red and white marble squares with solid marble steps, and the alabaster and Italianate mosaic designs are by James Powell and Company.

A statue of Saint Gabriel above the west porch of Saint Gabriel’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

The East Window (1896) by Charles Eamer Kempe depicts Christ in Majesty surrounded by angels, apostles, saints and kings.

The Lady Chapel was added to the south of the chancel and some of the original reredos from the original high altar, thought to be by George Gilbert Scott, was installed there. The south-east chapel also includes former flanking panels from east chancel wall in stone and mosaic, by Salvati, and reset against the south wall.

The panel above the arch to the south-east chapel apse shows Christ with the Doctors, in coloured and gilded opus sectile and in a moulded and carved alabaster frame. The south chancel window (1896) with a nativity scene is also by Kempe.

The pulpit (1875) on the north side of the chancel arch was designed by JP St Aubyn. The organ case (1892-1893) is attributed to Arthur Bloomfield. The vicar’s stall and choir stalls (1897) are by Bridgeman of Lichfield. The elaborately carved foliated corbels are attributed to Samuel Cundy, Thomas Cundy’s nephew.

The outer aisles, west porch and south-east chapel were added in 1896-1897 by the architects Baker and Turrill.

The south side of Saint Gabriel’s Church on Warwick Square, Pimlico (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Few alterations have taken place since then, although the church suffered damage from a World War II flying bomb on 29 July 1944.

Father Owen Higgs is the Vicar of Saint Gabriel’s, Pimlico. The regular Sunday services are: 8 am, Holy Communion (traditional language); 10:30 am, Sung Mass; 6 pm, Choral Evensong and Benediction. Choral Evensong is at 5:30 on Wednesdays.

Meanwhile, more in the days to come, hopefully, about my visits to Saint Saviour’s and Saint Peter’s during my stroll around Pimlico.

Saint Gabriel’s Church on Warwick Square, Pimlico, is in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, with said Holy Communion at 8 am and Sung Mass at 10:30 on Sundays (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)