is an Anglican church in west London, just to the north
of Kensington Gardens. Our congregation is made up of people of all
backgrounds from around the world, and we welcome those from every
tradition.
8.15am: Holy Communion (Prayer Book) 11.00 am: 1st Sunday in the month: Eucharist (Prayer Book) 2nd, 4th & 5th Sundays: Morning Prayer (Prayer Book) followed at 12.15pm: shortened Communion (Prayer Book) 3rd Sunday Holy Communion (Common Worship)
A Sunday School meets during morning prayer on the 2nd, 4th & 5th Sundays of the month. Services follow a traditional format with the 11am service being supported by a choir and organist.
Parish calendar and the visiting clergy:
July 2010: Sunday services 8:15 am and 11 am & onwards into 2011:
July 11, 2010: Rev Neil Bunker Archdeaconry Mental Health Liaison Officer 8:15 am and 11 am
July 18, 2010 Rev Jackie Barry Curate who visits from Emmanuel Kilburn W9 then at 11am Canon Rex Davis Former Sub-Dean, Lincoln Cathedral July 25, 2010 Revd Jeremy Allcock who visits from St Stephen Westbourne Park, W2 then at 11am Canon J Rosenthal from St Stephen, Walbrook London Internet Church
August 1,8,15,22,29, 2010: – 8.15 , then 11am Choral Eucharist
The church building was completed in 1882, on the site of an earlier church dating from 1818. The new church was built to house the huge congregations that flocked to hear the then incumbent, Archdeacon Hunter. Unfortunately the archdeacon died during the building of the church, however it has remained largely unchanged since its original construction except for the addition of the gallery in the 1880s.
The church is large, built in Victorian Gothic Revival style, and at one stage had seating for at least 1400 people, although that is now slightly reduced. It is arranged in a traditional layout and here is an organ by Walker that is used at all main services.
HISTORY
Bayswater is now the name of the greater part of the former Paddington metropolitan borough south of the railway, but was originally that of a hamlet (also called Bayswatering) situated near where the Westbourne or Bayswater rivulet flowed under the Uxbridge (now Bayswater) Road. It is derived from Bayard's or Baynard's Watering Place, Baynard being the name of a contemporary of William the Conqueror's who had held land in Paddington. (F.Gladstone: Notling Hill in Bygone Days). The parish of Paddington remained largely rural until the 1790s, providing grazing for the cattle which supplied Londoners with milk and beef: the whole parish had no more than 340 houses in 1795. The coming of the Grand Junction canal in 1801 and the development of the Paddington Estate of the Bishop of London brought rapid change. At the same time Edward Orme, the Bond Street print dealer, began the gravel extraction and speculative building which was to alter this corner of the parish and bring the need for a new church; the parish church of St. Mary was about a mile away in the still pleasant village of Paddington.
Moscow Road and St. Petersburgh Place are supposed to recall Orme's successful business dealings with the Russians, but may have been so named to commemorate Czar Alexander's visit to London in 1814. Orme's own name survives in nearby Orme Square, which he built in 1823.
Bayswater Chapel, built by Edward Orme and opened in 1818, stood on the site of the present church, and could seat 1200 people. By 1861 the population had risen to 75,784 and Bayswater was almost completely built over: the" great and aristocratic town" referred to in "The Builder" in 1862 was nearing completion. In 1858 the chapel was given its own parish and renamed St. Matthew's, receiving at the same time a facade in the baroque style. A weighty campanile in a Venetian gothic manner was added a little incongruously in 1871: in it were housed the bells and clock given to the church and subsequently transferred to the present tower.
THE PRESENT CHURCH
The Decision to Build
The story of the building of the present church begins with the arrival in 1867 of Archdeacon Hunter, newly returned from 23 years of missionary work with the Cree Indians of Northern Canada, for whom he had built a church and translated the Bible and Prayer Book.
Some ten years later the enlarged Chapelwas proving to be too small, and appears to have been in a dilapidated condition. An appeal for funds for the building of a new church was announced in June 1879, and the site enlarged by the purchase of the vicarage (where the tower now stands), although this still did not allow room enough for the church to be oriented. Under the generous patronage of J.D.Allcroft work was soon begun on a church to cost £16,000; a substantial legacy from a Mrs. Boetefeur, the donor of the bells in 1871, increased the funds available and the church was eventually to cost £29,050. Much work was done before the demolition of the old church became necessary, and the congregation were without their own place of worship for no more than five months. The first service in the new church was held on 21st May, 1882. Facade of former chapel.jpg
