Catalogue description The Queen Anne Churches

Papers of the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches in London and Westminster

In the catalogue dates are given new style. The extent of parish boundaries and the identification of localities were taken as far as possible from the 1720 edition of John Strype's Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster.

Minutes, including indexes (MSS/2690-2750/2690-6)

Books of works (MSS/2690-2750/2697-2702)

Books of contracts (MSS/2690-2750/2703-4)

Books of warrants (MSS/2690-2750/2705-6)

Various accounts (MSS/2690-2750/2707-8)

Memorials to the Treasury (MSS/2690-2750/2709-10)

Book of muniments (MSS/2690-2750/2711)

Papers concerning individual churches and sites (MSS/2690-2750/2712-17, 2729)

Bills for new churches (MSS/2690-2750/2718-22)

Miscellaneous petitions and proposals (MSS/2690-2750/2723)

Surveyors' reports (MSS/2690-2750/2724)

Papers of the treasurers and other officials (MSS/2690-2750/2725)

Legal and parliamentary papers and papers about architects and officials (MSS/2690-2750/2726)

Papers about endowment of new churches (MSS/2690-2750/2727)

Miscellaneous papers (MSS/2690-2750/2728)

Deeds (MSS/2690-2750/2730-46)

Original contracts (MSS/2690-2750/2747-9)

Plans (MSS/2690-2750/2750)

For MSS/2690; 2691, pp. 1-434; and 2693, see M. H. Port, ed., The Commissions for Building Fifty New Churches. The minute books, 1711-27 : a calendar. (London Record Society vol. 23, 1986)

In 1759 the Commission's papers were deposited in Lambeth Palace Library.

The Minute Books (MSS/2690-2693) have integral or separate manuscript indexes.

The Commission for Building Fifty New Churches, the so-called 'Queen Anne' churches, was appointed by Act of Parliament in 1711, imposing a duty on coals for the purpose of 'Building ... fifty new churches of Stone and other proper Materials, with Towers or Steeples to each of them; and for purchasing of Sites of Churches and Church-Yards, and Burying-places, in or near the Cities of London and Westminster, or the Suburbs thereof; and for making such Chapels as are already built, and capable thereof, Parish Churches, and for purchasing Houses for the Habitations of the Ministers of the said Churches'. The relevant statutes concerning the Commission were published in 1721 under the title The Acts of Parliament relating to the building [of] Fifty New Churches. The Commission's principal achievement was the building of ten new churches in London and the rebuilding of two more. In addition it gave assistance to several other church-building projects and was instrumental in converting some existing chapels into parish churches.

The churches built by the Commissioners, listed in M. H. Port, The Commissions for Building Fifty New Churches. The minute books, 1711-1727. A calendar (London Record Society, vol. 23, 1986), p. xl, were:

Christ Church Spitalfields

St Alphege Greenwich

St Anne Limehouse

St George Bloomsbury

St George in the East (Upper Wapping)

St George Hanover Square

St John Horsleydown (Southwark)

St John Smith Square, Millbank (Westminster)

St Luke Old Street (Cripplegate)

St Mary le Strand

St Mary Woolnoth (rebuilt)

St Paul Deptford

Churches subsidised from Commissioners' funds:

St George Gravesend

St George the Martyr, Southwark

St Giles in the Fields

St Mary Magdalen, Woolwich

St Michael Cornhill (tower completed)

St George the Martyr, Ormond Street (Queen Square), was bought by the Commissioners altered.

St John Clerkenwell was bought by the Commissioners.

The surveyors whom the Commissioners chose to carry their church-building programme into effect were Nicholas Hawksmoor and William Dickinson.

Of the twelve churches which were built under the Act, six were designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, two by Thomas Archer, one by John James, and one by James Gibbs.

The work of the Commission was described by (Sir) Howard Colvin in an article published in the Architectural Review in March 1950, reprinted in a revised form in the published catalogue: E. G. W. Bill, The Queen Anne Churches. A catalogue of the papers in Lambeth Palace Library of the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches in London and Westminster 1711-1759 (London, 1979). The published catalogue includes a list of Commissioners.