St Margaret's, Westminster

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox church

The Church of St Margaret, Westminster Abbey is an Anglican parish church in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, London, England.<ref name=smh>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is dedicated to Margaret of Antioch,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and forms part of a single World Heritage Site with the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey.

History and description

The church was founded in the twelfth century by Benedictine monks, so that local people who lived in the area around the Abbey<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> could worship separately at their own simpler parish church, and historically it was within the hundred of Ossulstone in the county of Middlesex.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1914, in a preface to Memorials of St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, a former Rector of St Margaret's, Hensley Henson, reported a mediaeval tradition that the church was as old as Westminster Abbey, owing its origins to the same royal saint, and that "The two churches, conventual and parochial, have stood side by side for more than eight centuries – not, of course, the existing fabrics, but older churches of which the existing fabrics are successors on the same site."<ref>From "Memorials of St. Margaret's church, Westminister, comprising the parish registers, 1539-1660, and other churchwardens' accounts, 1460-1603", reported in Notes and Queries (1914), p. 518.</ref>

St Margaret's was rebuilt from 1486 to 1523, at the instigation of King Henry VII, and the new church, which largely still stands today, was consecrated on 9 April 1523. It has been called "the last church in London decorated in the Catholic tradition before the Reformation", and on each side of a large rood cross there stood richly painted statues of St Mary and St John, while the building had several internal chapels. In the 1540s, the new church came near to demolition, when Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, planned to take it down to provide good-quality materials for Somerset House, his own new palace in the Strand. He was only kept from carrying out his plan by the resistance of armed parishioners.<ref>Richardson, John, The Annals of London: a Year-by-year Record of a Thousand Years of History (University of California Press, 2000), p. 81.</ref>

In 1614, St Margaret's became the parish church of the Palace of Westminster, when the Puritans of the seventeenth century, unhappy with the highly liturgical Abbey, chose to hold their Parliamentary services in a church they found more suitable:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> a practice that has continued since that time. An additional detached burial ground was added in 1625 at what is now Christchurch Gardens.

Between 1734 and 1738, the north-west tower was rebuilt to designs by John James; at the same time, the whole structure was encased in Portland stone. Both the eastern and the western porch were added later, with J. L. Pearson as architect. In 1878, the church's interior was greatly restored and altered to its current appearance by Sir George Gilbert Scott, although many Tudor features were retained.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1863, during preliminary explorations preparing for this restoration, Scott found several doors overlaid with what was believed to be human skin. After doctors had examined this skin, Victorian historians theorized that the skin might have been that of William the Sacrist, who organized a gang that, in 1303, robbed the King of the equivalent of, in modern currency, $100 million (see Richard of Pudlicott). It was a complex scheme, involving several gang members disguised as monks planting bushes on the palace. After the stealthy burglary six months later, the loot was concealed in these bushes. The historians believed that William the Sacrist was flayed alive as punishment and his skin was used to make these royal doors, perhaps situated initially at nearby Westminster Palace.<ref>Arnold, Catharine, Underworld London, Crime and Punishment in the Capital City, Simon & Schuster, 2012, p. 15.</ref> Subsequent study revealed that the skins were bovine in origin, not human.

By the 1970s, the number of people living nearby was in the hundreds. Ecclesiastical responsibility for the parish was reallocated to neighbouring parishes by the Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret Westminster Act 1972, and the church was brought under the authority of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey, ceasing to be a parish church.<ref name=smh/>

In July 2020, it was announced, without any consultation, that regular Sunday worship at the church would cease, and the choir was disbanded.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Members of the disbanded congregation launched a petition, which garnered more than 1700 signatures, and the regular community felt that The Abbey’s services are not intimate, nor do they invite participation, being quite formal. The Abbey, lacking a regular congregation and is mostly made up of tourists was felt to be profoundly different in spirit to the worshiping community at St Margaret's, which consisted of 60-120 regular worshipers. The cessation of regular worship was lamented in the press,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As of 2025, a weekly sung eucharist has been restarted on Sunday evenings.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

An annual new year service for the Coptic Orthodox Church in Britain takes place in the church in October, and in 2016 Bishop Angaelos gave the sermon.<ref>Messages from Prince of Wales, politicians, church leaders at Coptic New Year Service, Westminster Abbey dated 24 October 2016, at indcatholicnews.com. Retrieved 12 January 2018.</ref>

The Rector of St Margaret's is often a canon of Westminster Abbey.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Commemorative windows

St Margaret's, Westminster, interior, 2016
Four of the John Piper-designed windows in the south aisle

Notable windows include the east window of 1509 of Flemish stained glass, created to commemorate the betrothal of Catherine of Aragon to Henry VIII.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This has had a chequered history. It was given by Henry VII to Waltham Abbey in Essex, and at the Dissolution of the Monasteries the last Abbot sent it to a private chapel at New Hall, Essex. That came into the possession of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, the father of Anne Boleyn, then Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, next George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, after him Oliver Cromwell, from whom it reverted to the second Duke of Buckingham, next General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, and after him John Olmius, then Mr Conyers of Copt Hall, Essex, whose son sold the window to the parish of St Margaret's in 1758, for 400 guineas. The money came from a grant of £4,000, which parliament had made to the parish that year for the renovation of the church and the rebuilding of the chancel.<ref name=lp&p>Wheatley, H. B., and Peter Cunningham, London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, p. 467.</ref>

Other windows commemorate William Caxton, England's first printer, who was buried at the church in 1491, Sir Walter Raleigh, executed in Old Palace Yard<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and then also buried in the church in 1618, the poet John Milton, a parishioner of the church, and Admiral Robert Blake.

The Victorian glass that once filled the eight bays of the south aisle was destroyed by enemy action during the Second World War. In 1966, all eight windows were provided with new glass designed by John Piper and made by his longtime collaborator Patrick Reyntiens. Piper's unified scheme filled each window with an uncompromisingly modern abstract design, intended to create a "total impression of living radiance, in shades of silvery grey predominantly with splashes of pale greens, yellows and blues in varied density, to filter the daylight." The new windows were dedicated on 15 January 1967 in memory of Canon Carnegie and his wife, Peter Kemp-Welch, Clarence Fletcher and Richard Costain.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Weddings

As well as marrying its own parishioners, the church has long been a popular venue for society weddings, as Members of Parliament, peers, and officers of the House of Lords and House of Commons can choose to be married in it. Notable weddings include:

Other notable weddings include some of the Bright Young People.<ref>Template:Cite book (American ed.: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York, 2009)</ref>

Baptisms

Burials

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Mary Bradshaw, Sir William Constable, Admiral Richard Deane, Isaac Dorislaus, Anne Fleetwood, Thomas Hesilrige, Humphrey Mackworth, Stephen Marshall, Thomas May, John Meldrum, Admiral Edward Popham, John Pym, Humphrey Salwey, William Strong, William Strode, and William Twisse, were all disinterred from there and reburied in an unmarked pit in St Margaret's churchyard, on the orders of King Charles II. A memorial to them is set into the external wall to the left of the main west entrance.<ref>Oliver Cromwell Westminster Abbey</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Funerals and memorial services

Other notable events

On Easter day 1555 in the reign of Mary I a Protestant ex-Benedictine monk, William Flower inflicted wounds to the administerer of the sacrament. He repented for the injuries but would not repent his motive which was rejection of the doctrine of transubstantiation. He was thus sentenced for heresy and a week later severed of his hand and burned at the stake outside the church.

During the First World War, Edward Lyttelton, headmaster of Eton, gave a sermon in the church on the theme of "loving your enemies", promoting the view that any post-war treaty with Germany should be a just one and not vindictive. He had to leave the church after the service by a back door, while a number of demonstrators sang "Rule, Britannia!" in protest at his attitude.<ref>Alan Wilkinson, The Church of England and the First World War (London, SCM Press, 1996), p. 221</ref>

Choirs

Until 2019, the treble choristers for St Margaret's were supplied by Westminster Under School. In September 2023, a new choir for girls aged 11 to 17 was formed, to sing for regular liturgical services alongside the professional singers of the St Margaret's Consort.

The church also hosted the first performance by the UK Parliament Choir under Simon Over in 2000.

Organ

An organ was installed in 1806 by John Avery. The current organ is largely built by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.<ref>Template:National Pipe Organ Register</ref>

Rectors

Mackenzie Walcott lists the following as officiating clergymen:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Template:Div col

Template:Div col end

Under the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act 1840, this rectory was annexed to the canonry of Westminster Abbey then held by Henry Hart Milman, such that he and his successors as Canon would be Rector ex officio.<ref>Template:Cite legislation UK</ref> This arrangement continued until 1978. The Rector was often (and continuously from 1972 to 2010) also the Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Template:Div col

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> (also Speaker's Chaplain from 1916)

Template:Div col end

† Rector died in post

Organists and Directors of Music

Organists who have played at St Margaret's include:

Template:Div col

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:Div col end

Directors of Music at St Margaret's have included Richard Hickox, Simon Over, Aidan Oliver and (currently) Greg Morris.

See also

Template:Portal

References

Template:Reflist

Template:Sister project

Template:World Heritage Sites in the United Kingdom Template:Churches in Westminster Template:Parliament Square Template:Westminster Abbey Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=St_Margaret%27s,_Westminster&oldid=390344"