Chiswick: Protestant nonconformity

PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY.

Thomas Case, formerly rector of St. Gilesin-the-Fields, and William Low, who had been ejected as a preacher at Hereford, were both licensed as Presbyterians when at Chiswick in 1672. (fn. 1) George Fox made several visits to Chiswick, where he helped to find a schoolhouse for Anne Travers, between 1685 and 1690. (fn. 2) Meetings were held at the house of Obadiah Marriot, a minister, in 1689 and 1691. (fn. 3)

A building at Turnham Green was registered in 1809 by dissenters, (fn. 4) including one who in 1817 registered the boys' school near the Windmill as a place of instruction for Independents. (fn. 5) Part of Belmont House academy, also at Turnham Green, was registered for worship in 1821. (fn. 6) There were apparently two protestant nonconformist chapels, both of them Independent, in 1851, when neither had a congregation as large as that of the Roman Catholic mission. (fn. 7) By 1890 most of the leading denominations had acquired premises (fn. 8) and by 1903 the largest sect was the Baptists, with 903 attendances on one Sunday; varying Methodist worshippers then totalled 479, attenders at an evangelistic mission in Fraser Street numbered 333, and Congregationalists 318. (fn. 9) Arrivals in the period between the World Wars included Christian Scientists, Seventh Day Adventists, and Mormons. Falling attendances among the older congregations led to the closure of several churches, in Chiswick and elsewhere, after the Second World War. (fn. 10)

Congregationalists. (fn. 11)

Independents, said to have formed mtg. 1812, leased bldg. near S. side Chiswick Lane as chapel and Sunday sch. 1831. Replaced 1841 by pedimented bldg., with round-headed windows, containing chapel seating 350 and schoolroom overhead. (fn. 12) Attendance 1851, when known as Chiswick dissenting chapel: 192 a.m.; 28 aft.; 114 p.m. (fn. 13) After numbers had dwindled, chapel acquired by Bapts. 1866. (fn. 14)

Strand chapel, Strand-on-the-Green, blt. 1833 and used on weekdays as British sch. Attendance 1851, when it seated c. 92 and served a neighbourhood 'destitute . . . of religious obligation': 50 a.m.; 44 aft.; 30 p.m. (fn. 15) Closed by 1903.

Turnham Green or Gunnersbury Cong. church originated in mtgs. in lecture hall from 1873. Hall burnt down 1875, plot bought S. side Chiswick High Rd., (fn. 16) and new church reg. 1882. (fn. 17) Attendance 1903: 157 a.m.; 161 p.m. Church, of stock brick with stone dressings in the Early English style, seated c. 450 and inc. classrooms on lower floor. (fn. 18) From 1963 church leased as a store and in 1978 awaited demolition (between nos. 345 and 347). Services held in a hall 1963-74; cong. joined Brentford Cong. ch. (q.v.) and Presbs. 1972 as Chiswick United Reformed church. (fn. 19)

Methodists.

Chiswick Meth. church, Sutton Court Rd., originated in mtgs. of Hammersmith Wes. circuit in Chiswick by 1845, in shops off High Rd. c. 1865 and c. 1876. Yellow-brick Sunday sch. chapel blt. 1880 on land given by duke of Devonshire. (fn. 20) Attendance 1903: 102 a.m.; 95 p.m. Red-brick church with stone dressings, in a Perpendicular style and with NE. tower, built N. of sch. chapel 1909, seating c. 800. Damaged in Second World War. Remained in use with older chapel as hall 1978. (fn. 21)

Strand-on-the-Green Wes. mtg. bef. 1880, (fn. 22) in mission room in Back Lane by 1887-8, mission ho. by 1901-2. (fn. 23) Attendance 1903: 70 p.m. Hammersmith circuit 1908. Closed by 1909. (fn. 24)

Primitive Meths. in former Cong. and Bapt. chapel in Chiswick Lane 1882 (demol. 1884), (fn. 25) in hall in Fisher's Lane 1884. (fn. 26) Attendance 1903: 95 a.m.; 117 p.m. Richmond circuit 1908. (fn. 27) Closed by bombing in Second World War. (fn. 28)

Baptists.

Chiswick Bapt. church originated in acquisition of former Cong. chapel in Chiswick Lane 1866. Moved to iron chapel E. side Annandale Rd. 1882 on land bought by J. T. Olney of Metropolitan Tabernacle, (fn. 29) seating 200 (fn. 30) before extension 1893. Moved to rented hall in Turnham Green Terrace 1896 and to new church in Annandale Rd. 1897. (fn. 31) Attendance 1903: 235 a.m.; 276 p.m. Red-brick church with stone dressings, in a Gothic style, seating 625. (fn. 32) Remained in use 1978.

Gunnersbury Bapt. church, (fn. 33) begun in iron chapel of 1873, replaced by church S. side Wellesley Rd., opened 1877 and reg. by Union of Protestant Dissenters as Trinity Martyrs' Mem. church 1879. (fn. 34) Declared Bapt. 1885, in charge of London Bapt. Assoc. 1887. Attendance 1903: 151 a.m.; 241 p.m. Red-brick church with stone dressings in an Early English style, seating 650 from 1890. (fn. 35) Remained in use 1979, not in membership with Bapt. Union. (fn. 36) Lecture hall in Sutton Lane, blt. 1881 and reg. for worship 1897, (fn. 37) replaced by hall adjoining church in Wellesley Rd. 1931.

Reformed Episcopalians.

Emmanuel Reformed Episcopal church reg. 1883 (fn. 38) by branch of Protestant Episcopal Church of America, (fn. 39) as iron bldg. N. side Wellesley Rd., seating 550. Larger iron church in use from 1890, (fn. 40) when old bldg. became sch. room. (fn. 41) Attendance 1903: 129 a.m.; 98 p.m. Regular services ceased c. 1940. Church demol. 1949 (fn. 42) and replaced by flats called Wellesley Court by 1978.

Salvation Army.

Chiswick hall, High Rd., reg. 1890. Still used 1895-6 but replaced by 1900 by Shaftesbury institute (later hall), William Street. (fn. 43) Attendance 1903: 24 a.m.; 42 p.m. Army moved by 1914 and reg. Clifton hall, Clifton Gardens, 1916, leaving between 1940 and 1964. (fn. 44)

Other denominations and unspecified missions.

Undesignated Christians reg. no. 45 William Street 1861 but no longer used it 1895. (fn. 45)

Chiswick Mission, originally coffee-stall of R. T. Smith for Thornycrofts' workmen, later in Furze Street and then in Fraser Street, where iron bldg. reg. by unsectarian mission 1882 and brick bldg. reg. 1891. (fn. 46) Attendance 1903: 163 a.m.; 170 p.m. Yellow-brick bldg. with rendered gable end in Fraser Street still used 1978.

Plymouth Brethren used Clifton hall, Clifton Gardens, 1890 (fn. 47) but apparently had left by 1903.

Shaftesbury ragged sch., William Street, reg. for unsectarian worship 1886. Replaced 1895 by Shaftesbury institute, (fn. 48) presumably bldg. used by Salvationists 1903. (fn. 49)

Robert Raikes mem. schs. mission and lecture hall, Sutton Lane, reg. by unspecified dissenters 1882 to 1895. (fn. 50)

Society of Friends first met at Chiswick Mission 1906, then in Fisher's Lane 1907 and Turnham Green Terrace. (fn. 51) Reg. nos. 15-17 Essex Place 1913 to 1924. (fn. 52)

Christian Scientists, previously in Twickenham, rented hall in Turnham Green Terrace 1920, called Tenth Church of Christ, Scientist, 1921 and First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1924. New church in Marlborough Rd. founded 1931 and reg. 1932; bldg., finished after Second World War, seated c. 100 1978. (fn. 53)

Chiswick Seventh Day Adventist church, S. side Bath Rd. but postal address Stamford Brook Rd. (Hammersmith), opened 1916, reg. 1932 and 1937, and burnt down 1971. Larger church of red brick and glass, seating 280, officially opened on same site 1974 and attended mainly by West Indians 1978. (fn. 54)

Crusader hall, blt. E. side Sutton Court Rd. 1926, replaced temporary accommodation and seated 150-200. Also used by Pentecostalists 1979. (fn. 55)

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints reg. Ivy hall, Cambridge Rd., 1937, replacing it 1941 with no. 58 Wellesley Rd. and 1944 with room at no. 1A Chiswick Common Rd., which it had left by 1964. (fn. 56)