Google Street View of St
Mary Abbots, Kensington
View Larger Map
Location: St Mary Abbots, Kensington, Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, United Kingdom. (51°30′08″N 0°11′30″W).
Website: http://www.stmaryabbotschurch.org/
Phone: +44 20 7937 5136
St Mary Abbots, Kensington
St Mary Abbots is a church located on Kensington High Street, London at the intersection with Kensington Church Street. The present church was built in 1872 by the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott in neo-Gothic Early English style. It was the latest in a succession of churches which have stood on the site since around 1100. The church has the tallest spire in London.
History of St Mary Abbots, Kensington:
Aubrey de Vere was a Norman knight given the manor of Kensington after the Norman conquest. Around 1100, his son Godfrey was taken seriously ill but was cured by Faritius, the Abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of St Mary at Abingdon.
In gratitude Godfrey bequeathed the church in Kensington, with 270 acres (1.1 km2), to the abbey. In 1262 the abbey established a parish in Kensington, and dedicated it to St Mary. It was probably given the epithet of ‘Abbots’ because of its link to the abbey rather than the diocese of the Bishop of London. This led to a dispute with the bishop and an action followed in the consistory court of the diocese. This resulted in the patronage of the church passing to the bishop in perpetuity but rights over the surrounding land remaining with the abbey.[2] The line of vicars can be traced directly back to this foundation in 1262.
