This in-person talk was live-streamed, and a recording posted on You Tube with the following link:
Please note that the meeting begins 8 minutes and 20 seconds into the recording.
As part of the celebrations of St Marys’ 150th anniversary, its archivist, and CHS member, Chris Kitching has written a new history entitled St Mary the Virgin Primrose Hill: a Church and its People 1872-2022 (Troubador, 2022, price £25). The talk will address themes from the book, copies of which will be on sale after the meeting.
The Church will be open beforehand, from 6.30pm, to allow members and guests to look at its fine Victorian stained glass at their own pace, with the help of a free leaflet on the subject, and to view the Rood by Gilbert Bayes in memory of Thomas R Way (lithographer), the reduced form of Bodley’s high altar reredos, and the opus sectile panel of the Crucifixion by Henry Holiday. As the meeting will be held during Lent, there will also be an opportunity to see the ‘Lenten Array’ – the tradition of covering images during the Church’s fasting season, which will be put back in place at the start of the meeting.
The parish of St Mary the Virgin Primrose Hill, whose boundaries were determined in 1867 but not finally established in law until 1885, was by far the smallest of the new parishes into which Hampstead was gradually split by the end of the 19th century. Despite its name, St Mary’s did not, and does not, include a large part of the neighbourhood generally known today as ‘Primrose Hill’, although it does include much of the Hill itself. Poverty on a significant scale has co-existed here with wealth for much of the church’s history, and the uphill struggle to raise funds for a permanent church building in 1871-72 almost led to the abandonment of the building project.
St Mary’s, however, was soon up and running, and it was quickly put on the map (and in the newspapers!), when its first vicar, Revd Charles Fuller, embraced Ritualism and was eventually reprimanded by the Bishop. Under the second vicar, Revd Albert Spencer, the building was not only doubled in size to complete the architect’s original aspirations, but also filled with high quality stained glass from the workshops of Clayton & Bell, HV Milner and CE Kempe. The third and fourth Vicars, Revds Percy Dearmer, and Arthur Duncan-Jones, added to St Mary’s reputation as a go-to place for an understanding of English liturgy and church music, especially Plainsong. Dearmer in particular saw to it that only the best of artists and craftsmen, many of them members of the Art Workers’ Guild, were commissioned to make the Church’s furniture, fixtures and fittings, although few of these are still on display or in use today.
In 2022, while still maintaining its liturgical and musical traditions, St Mary’s is also widely known across north London and beyond for its pro-active youth work in the fight against violence and street crime; its support of women’s ministry; and its sponsorship of the annual Primrose Hill Lectures and hosting of many concerts. And of course for its brewery in the crypt. On the map, it certainly is!