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Coordinates: 51°28′59″N 0°10′15″W / 51.48306°N 0.17083°W / 51.48306; -0.17083

Chelsea Old Church
Location	Old Church Street and Cheyne Walk, London
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Previous denomination	Roman Catholic
Churchmanship	Traditional
Website	www.chelseaoldchurch.org.uk
History
Status	Parish church
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Years built	12th century
Specifications
Number of towers	One
Bells	8[1]
Administration
Diocese	Diocese of London
Clergy
Vicar(s)	The Revd Canon David Reindorp
Laity
Director of music	Andrew Macmillan
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name: Chelsea Old Church (All Saints)
Designated	24 June 1954 Amended 18 December 1992
Reference no.	1189649[2]

The Chelsea Old Church, also known as All Saints, is an Anglican church, on Old Church Street, Chelsea, London SW3, England, near Albert Bridge. It is the church for a parish in the Diocese of London, part of the Church of England.

Inside, there is seating for 400 people. There is a memorial plaque to the author Henry James (1843–1916) who lived nearby on Cheyne Walk. To the west of the church is a small public garden containing a sculpture by Sir Jacob Epstein.

History

Chelsea Old Church dates from 1157.^[3] Formerly it was the parish church of Chelsea when it was a village, before it was engulfed by London. The building originally consisted of a 13th-century chancel with chapels to the north and south (c.1325) and a nave and tower built in 1670.

The chapels were private property. The one to the north was called the Lawrence Chapel and was owned by Chelsea's Lord of the Manor. The chapel to the south was rebuilt in 1528 as Sir Thomas More's private chapel. The date can be found on one of the capitals of the pillars leading to the chancel, which were reputedly designed by Holbein. There is a statue by Leslie Cubitt Bevis of More outside the church, facing the river.

There is a 1669 memorial to Lady Jane Cheyne. It was designed by the son of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and executed by Gian Lorenzo's favourite sculptor Antonio Raggi.^[4]

It is the only London church to have chained books. They are the gift of Sir Hans Sloane, an Irish doctor, and consist of the so-called "Vinegar Bible" of 1717, two volumes of Foxe's Book of Martyrs (1684 edition), a prayer book (1723) and Homilies (1683).

The church appears in several paintings by James McNeill Whistler and J.M.W. Turner, in all cases little more than distant tower; the church was painted white in the 19th century. For example, the church was depicted in the background of Whistler's Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge, painted c.1872–5.

Saint Thomas More's statue in front of the Church

The church suffered severe bombing during the Blitz of the Second World War in 1941, with the More Chapel least affected. Services were held in the adjoining hospital for nine years. In 1950 the More Chapel was reopened, followed by the chancel and Lawrence Chapel in May 1954, after restoration by the architect Walter Godfrey. In May 1958, the entire church was reconsecrated by the Bishop of London, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. The Church has been restored in its entirety on its old foundations. It looks similar to the way it did before World War II. Many of the tombs inside have been reconstructed, almost like jigsaw puzzles.

In 1978, Jack Leslau wrote an article in The Ricardian suggesting that one of the Princes in the Tower survived, namely Edward V of England, and is buried in Chelsea Old Church. His evidence depends on a complicated interpretation of a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger. Leslau's website expands on this thesis, but no major academic institution endorses the thesis.^[5] The social reformer The Baroness Courtney of Penwith is buried in the church.

In the year 2000, the Museum of London Archaeological Services carried out an archaeological dig at the cemetery.^[6]

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Burials

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  Jane, Duchess of Northumberland (d. 1555)


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  The 10th Baron Dacre (d. 1594)


• 
  Anne, Baroness Dacre (d. 1595)


• 
  Katherine, Countess of Huntingdon (d. 1620)


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  Sir Hans Sloane (d. 1753)

References

External links

Media related to Chelsea Old Church at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website


• List of the Rectors and Incumbents - British History Online