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Marble Arch
Location: Annunciation, Marble Arch, City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom (51°30′52″N 0°9′31″W)
Annunciation, Marble Arch:
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| Church of the Annunciation |
The Church of the Annunciation, Marble Arch, is an Anglican church in the Marble Arch district of London, UK. It is dedicated to the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Grade II*-listed Edwardian Gothic Revival building was designed by Sir Walter Tapper.
Worship at the Annunciation is in the Anglo-Catholic style and is supported by a tradition of choral singing. The church is closely linked to a local primary school, Hampden Gurney School. The head teacher of the Hampden Gurney school is Ms. Evelyn Chua.
History of Annunciation, Marble Arch:
The Church of Annunciation is located close to Bryanston Square and Montagu Square in the neoclassical Portman Estate area of London, which was developed by Henry William Portman in the 18th Century.
A chapel of ease known as the Quebec Chapel was founded on the present site in 1787 to commemorate the Battle of Quebec (1775). It is thought that this chapel was built on the site of the riding school of the Portman Barracks. By the early twentieth century the chapel had fallen into disrepair and it was demolished in 1911.
Among the priests in charge of the Quebec Chapel was the theologian and hymnnodist, Henry Alford (1853-57) who wrote the hymn "Come, ye thankful people, come".
The Annunciation has always had a close association with the Anglo-Catholicism movement started in the 19th Century, and in the early part of the 20th Century many of its adherents were strongly opposed to the growing Ecumenical movement. In May 1951 an interdenominational Christian rally was held in nearby Hyde Park to coincide with the launch of the Festival of Britain. A number of Anglo-Catholic clergy and lay people, led by Rev Hugh Ross Williamson,[6] held a protest meeting at the Annunciation Church to express their opposition to Bishops of the Church of England sharing a platform with Methodists, Baptists and other Non-Conformist churches, organisations which, in their opinion, 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; although he admitted to T.S. Eliot (a fellow Anglo-Catholic and a churchwarden of St Stephen's, Gloucester Road) that he found the tone of the protest "somewhat extreme", he nevertheless declared "I have nailed my colours to the mast and cannot let down my co-signatories." Writer Rose Macaulay also commented on the protest at the Annunciation, expressing dismay at opposition to the rally.
