WHITEFIELD MEMORIAL CHURCH {FORMERLY TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD CHAPEL}

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: LMA/4472
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: WHITEFIELD MEMORIAL CHURCH {FORMERLY TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD CHAPEL}
Date(s)	: 1756-1978
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 0.7 linear meters
Name of creator(s)	: Whitefields Chapel | Tottenham Court Road

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

George Whitefield (1714-1770), the famous evangelical preacher, obtained a lease of the site for his Chapel in Tottenham Court Road in 1756. Whitefield had been driven to seek a place where he would be free from the opposition encountered from the vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields at the Long Acre Chapel where he had been a minister. The Chapel, built and probably designed by Matthew Pearce, was opened for public worship in 1756 and was enlarged in the winter of 1759 to 1760. Whitefield died in Boston, America in 1770 and his memorial sermon was preached in the Chapel by John Wesley.

When the original lease expired in 1827, the freehold was purchased by Trustees, who reconditioned the Chapel which was reopened for services in October 1831. In 1853 the burial ground which had been in use since 1756 with an interval of eight years, 1823-1831, was closed. There was a dispute when in 1856 the Reverend J.W. Richardson endeavoured to use part of it for building purposes, and owners of the graves applied for an injunction against the disturbance of the ground. However, in 1895 it was laid out and opened as a public garden.

In 1856 the Chapel was repaired, only to be almost wholly destroyed by fire in February 1857. The property was then bought up by the London Congregational Building Society who erected a new building designed by John Tarring. However, in 1889 the foundations began to give way, probably because of the numerous burials within the building which disturbed the filling to the pond underneath.

The Chapel was closed and services were carried out in a temporary iron structure until the new building was opened in November 1899. The new building included a chapel designed to seat 1,200 people, and beneath it Toplady Hall, named after the Reverend Augustus Toplady. On 25 March 1945 the Chapel was totally destroyed by bombing and was subsequently replaced by a new building which still remains on the site. The Whitefield Memorial Church is now the American Church in London. It is a non-denominational, evangelical church.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records include registers of baptisms, 1805-1879 and 1930-1974; registers of marriages, 1866-1882 and 1936-1965; registers of burials, 1756-1845 and 1945-1965; roll of members, 1865-1879; minute books; attendance registers; abstract of title to Burial Ground; visitors' books; 'Signal' magazines; leaflets and newsletters; historical articles; reports and correspondence.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

In sections according to catalogue.

Conditions governing access:

These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright: City of London

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Received in 2006 (B06/063).

Allied Materials

Related material:

See also LMA/4143 and ACC/1801.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
January to March 2009