Queen's Chapel
| Queen's Chapel | |
|
The Queen's Chapel St James Palace | |
|---|---|
|
Westminster, Middlesex | |
 The Queen's Chapel on Marlborough Road | |
| Church of England | |
| (Royal peculiar) | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ29298015 |
| Location: | 51°30’18"N, 0°8’13"W |
| History | |
| Built 1623–1625 | |
| Information | |
The Queen's Chapel St James Palace, previously known as the German Chapel, is a chapel in Westminster, Middlesex, by St James's Palace. The chapel was designed by Inigo Jones and built between 1623 and 1625 as an adjunct to the palace: initially it was intended as a Roman Catholic chapel for the Infanta Maria Anna of Spain in the expectation of her marriage to the future King Charles I, which never took place. Instead, soon after his accession, the King married Henrietta Maria of France, also a Roman Catholic, and the chapel was used by her and her retinue.
In later years, the chapel served various continental Protestants who were resident at Court. It is one of the facilities of the British monarch's household religious establishment, the Chapel Royal, but does not bear that name: there is an earlier chapel, built in 1540 in the palace itself, known as 'the Chapel Royal'.
The Queen's Chapel is a Grade I listed building.[1]
History
The Queen's Chapel was built as a Roman Catholic chapel at a time when the construction of churches for that such worship was otherwise prohibited in England. It was used by Charles I's French wife, Queen Henrietta Maria, who imported chapel furnishings from France.
During the Civil War, the chapel was used as a stable. It was refurbished in 1662, and again in the 1680s by Christopher Wren. It never returned to Roman worship.
From the 1690s the chapel was used by the Dutch Protestant courtiers of King William and Queen Mary. In 1718, the chapel was given over to German courtiers of King George I who had moved to England with him. The chapel was then called the 'German Chapel'. On 17 September 1782 the German organist Augustus Frederic Christopher Kollmann began work at the Royal German Chapel and was there for the rest of his life.[2] He was succeeded by his son George Augustus Kollmann and his daughter Johanna Sophia Kollmann who died in 1849.[3]
The Queen's Chapel became an administered 'Chapel Royal' again in 1938.[4]
The chapel was built as an integral part of St James's Palace, but when the adjacent private apartments of the monarch burned down in 1809 they were not replaced, and in 1856–57 Marlborough Road was laid out between the palace and the Queen's Chapel. The result is that physically the chapel now appears to be more part of the Marlborough House complex than of St James's Palace.[4]
The body of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother lay at the Queen's Chapel for several days in 2002, during the preparations for her lying-in-state in Westminster Hall before her ceremonial funeral.[5][6]
Architecture
The chapel is built of brick but rendered to appear as if it were stone-built.[1] It was built in a Palladian style.[7] It has gable ends with pediments. The interior vault is gilded and painted.[1]
Pictures
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East and North walls
from Marlborough House grounds -
The Queen's Chapel in 1688 -
The German Chapel in 1819 -
Plaque next to the Queen's Chapel
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Queen's Chapel) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 National Heritage List 1273605: Queen's Chapel (Grade II listing)
- ↑ Kassler, Michael (2004). The English Bach Awakening: Knowledge Of J.s. Bach And His Music In England 1750–1830. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. p. 20-22. ISBN 978-1-84014-666-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=OkiW--37TGAC&pg=PA112. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
- ↑ Kassler, Michael (2004-09-23) (in en). Kollmann, Augustus Frederic Christopher (1756–1829), music theorist. 1. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15805. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-15805.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Bradley, Simon (2001), "The Queen's Chapel in the Twentieth Century", Architectural History 44: 293–302, doi:10.2307/1568758
- ↑ "Gun salutes honour Queen Mother". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/apr/01/queenmother.monarchy5.
- ↑ Timms, Elizabeth Jane. "The Queen’s Chapel, St James’s". Royal Central. https://royalcentral.co.uk/features/the-queens-chapel-st-jamess-102570/.
- ↑ "The Queen's Chapel (St James's Palace)". Open House London. https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/1437.
- 'The Buildings of England: London 6: Westminster' (2003) pages 587–88
- The Chapel Royal, St James's Palace