The History of Essex Hall by Mortimer Rowe B.A., D.D. Lindsey Press © 1959 Previous   Next Preface  Chapter 1   Chapter 2   Chapter 3   Chapter 4   Chapter 5   Chapter 6   Chapter 7   Chapter 8

Chapter 3 - The Homeless Wanderers

We, must now turn aside from the record of Essex Street Chapel and its congregation during three-quarters of the 19th century, and tell of events that belong more directly to our story: events that will bring us back to Essex Street, once for a brief spell, and then in good earnest after an interval of thirty years.

Everyone knows that among the religious denominations in this country the Congregationalists, the Baptists and the Unitarians are all made up of independent congregationsi.e., each congregation is legally independent of the rest, owning (through trustees) its own church premises and more or less fiercely resistant to outside interference even from its neighbours in the same denomination. All steps towards 'central' organization, with its possibility of control from above, have encountered suspicion and hostility in these three denominations. The Congregationalists were formerly called 'Independents'; the Unitarians are descended in the main from `Presbyterian' ancestors who failed to set up a Presbyterian system of church government in the 18th century and became, if possible, more independent than the Independents. And it must be noted that when Lindsey founded Essex Street Chapel he stood, by his own choice, alone and apart even from his Presbyterian-Unitarian contemporaries, scarcely looking to them for anything beyond their moral support, for which indeed he was deeply grateful. His very mode of worship was strange to thema revision and adaptation of the Prayer Book of the Church of England.

And yet here is the paradoxical result. Lindsey's open and courageous advocacy of Unitarianism in preaching and worship gave considerable impetus far and wide among Presbyterian ministers and congregations who, as we have seen, were essentially at one with him, but were chary of proclaiming it openly in the existing state of the law. There was now born among these kindred churches a tendency to draw more closely together and seek to engender common and organized activity, in which Lindsey and his successors played a leading part. Let us, as briefly as possible, recall the progress of these events. [ For a fuller account, see Mellon, Liberty and Religion, Chapter II. ]

As early as 1783 Lindsey and Disney drew other ministers and laity into conference about the need for united action in propagating Unitarian opinions, and after a few years of informal co-operative activity, with meetings in Lindsey's house, an organized society was successfully founded in 1791, with a title that sounds quaintly in our modem ears 'The Unitarian Society for promoting Christian Knowledge and the Practice of Virtue by the Distribution of Books'. Twenty-two years before the 1813 Act removed penalties against Unitarians, this first organized denominational Unitarian society came into existence, and it continued until, after thirty-three years, it was absorbed into something larger, as we shall see.

Next, in 18o6, came 'The Unitarian Fund', founded chiefly by laymen, 'for the Promotion of Unitarianism by means of Popular Preaching', and for financial assistance to poorer congregations. This also took firm root and survived until was superseded.

Thirdly, after the passing of the 1813 Act, but while the oppressive Corporation Act and Test Act were still on the Statute Book, 'The Association for the Protection of the Civil Rights of Unitarians' was established in 1819. But by this time it began to dawn upon the minds of Unitarians that this trinity of cognate societies might well be united in one. They anticipated Robert Browning's Abt Vogler, who propounded the mystery of the musician's harmonic gift -

and the starry vision came to them of a single Association for all these and aother appropriate activities in the interest of our churches and their members, and for the effective defence and propagation of our faith.

Thus was brought to birth, triumphantly, in 1825, THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION. [ By a happy coincidence, in those days of slow posts, no transatlantic telegraph, telephone or wireless, our American cousins, in complete ignorance as to the details of what was afoot, though moving towards a similar goal, founded the American Unitarian Association on precisely the same day - May 26, 1825. ] And eight years later, for the unification and progress of the work of religious education among the young, THE SUNDAY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION was established as its junior partner.

From the title of this chapter the reader will see the reason for this highly condensed outline. Now was the time, he may be forgiven for thinking, when Unitarian enthusiasm and Unitarian money should have combined to build - or to buy outright and adapt - suitable London Headquarters to house the two Associations, with full-time secretaries and a clerk or two, to organize and develop the denominational work. But that is assuming far too much, and looking back to the past through modern spectacles. Pride and satisfaction there was among the leading spirits of our movement; but in 1825 the rank and file, far away from London, would hear and comprehend but little of it. As a consequence, for just half a century, splendid and steadily expanding work was carried on by the British and Foreign Unitarian Association in a series of hired office premises [ Until 1835, at 3 Walbrook Buildings; 1835-49, at 31 St. Swithin's Lane; 1849-52, at Essex Street Chapel; 1852-74, at 178, Strand; 1874-86, at 37 Norfolk Street, Strand. ] with no less than seven devoted part-time Honorary Secretaries, ministerial or lay, in succession, and similarly by the Sunday School Association, before the ques ­tion of a permanent home of their own really came to the fore.

Then at last, in the early 'seventies, the first wave of enthusiasm for the project rose rapidly higher, almost reached its crest of triumph, ready to break and roll majestically forwardbut alas! sank down again and failed most ineffectually. It is an almost forgotten story, for it illustrates to perfection the characteristic strengthand weaknessof our leaders at that period. In 1870 full recognition was accorded to "the growing desire for a large and central building" of our own. The need for it was eloquently expressed by the Secretary, the enthusiastic Robert Spears, in a horrifying description of the premises then occupied:

It may be said with perfect truthfulness that no Committee is ever held without every one experiencing how badly the Office is adapted for such meetings. Frequently it is crowded, and felt to be in a most unhealthy state; for the attendance on the several Committees gradually increases through a deeper interest being felt in Unitarian movements. Deputations which have waited on the Committees have been necessarily sent into a little dark back room till an interview could be had. The general business of the Office is always suspended while the Committees are sitting. It is also of great importance for the sale of Unitarian literature, that to our place of business there should be a safe and easy access, entirely different from that of the present dark and narrow staircase, which all to ascend who wish to purchase books.

The Secretary was instructed to explore possibilities, but failed to discover anything suitable. However, a building committee was appointed, the project of a proposed new building was loudly applauded by the Annual Meetings of 1872, and a £20,000 Appeal Fund was launched. No less than £12,000 was raised, the first £1,000 being put down by Mr. James Hopgood, who was especially keen on the project; but meanwhile acute controversy arose about the terms of the Trust to govern the building when it was builtor discovered and purchased. Dr. James Martineau and others strongly contended against a definitely Unitarian trust deed; Counsel's opinion was sought and debated; Martineau's 'open trust' amendment was defeated. But all this hampering controversy, coupled with the fact that explorations of possible buildings or sites had continuously led to nought, and that 'suitable premises' were now found to be available in Norfolk Street, Strand, on a 10 years' lease, brought the enterprise to an inglorious end. The whole of the £12,000  worth sixty or seventy thousand today  was therefore returned to the subscribers, and the hope of permanent headquarters vanished with the donations.

Chronologically out of order, but appropriate here for other reasons, is the curiously interesting fact that twenty years earlier, in the course of its wanderings, the British and Foreign Unitarian Association had turned up in Essex Street and had been accommodated from 1849 to 1852 in "the rooms adjoining the Chapel, belonging to the Trustees and Minister thereof, having been the dwelling-place of Lindsey, Belsham and Madge"; to wit, the rooms beneath the chapel, and the cellars in the basement, specified in the Trust Deed. For some reason or other, vaguely referred to in the Annual Report as "for the sake of the public good and general harmony", the arrangement came to an end, but it strangely foreshadowed the events of thirty years later, to which we now come in the course of our record.

The Essex Street Chapel and congregation had flourished during the first half of the nineteenth century, but suffered an inevitable decline when the district became less and less of a residential area, and Londoners were hiving off into distant suburban regions. Many distinguished persons had been members of this congregation in their time: to name only two, for example, William Smith, M.P., to whose Parliamentary labours we largely owe Sir Robert Peel's 1813 Act repealing anti-Unitarian legislation; and Crabb Robinson, the writer of the invaluable Diaries, which are one of the precious possessions of Dr. William's famous Library. Our illustration opposite page 32 represents the service held on the occasion of the Centenary of the congregation in 1874; no doubt it is architecturally correct, but it is impossible to believe that so few London Unitarian women attended the service, and that the pews were mostly packed with men while the ladies were nearly all shown to the back seats under the galleries!

But by 1880 the congregation had sadly diminished and was seriously considering the question of closing down altogether.

It is amusing, and perhaps illuminating, to record the nearest neighbours, of the Chapel, at the top end of the street, in 1880. They were as follows:

And at the same time the two Associations were facing the pros­ pect of losing their Norfolk Street premises when the lease expired in 1883. Discussions were entered into; the Charity Commission was approached for permission to utilize the building as headquarters of the two Associations; the Commission refused, and stipulated that the property must be valued and sold, andin harmony with the Trust Deed of 1783that the proceeds must be devoted to the erection of a chapel and a minister's house else­ where. Otherwise, they would be subject to a Charity Commission Scheme for their future use.

So the thinking-caps were donned again, and brains went successfully to work. The premises were valued £15,000, and the valuation was approved by the Charity Commission. The homeless wanderers accepted the challengebut what a pity that the £12,000 of 1873 had gone back to its donors! The departing congregation joined hands with an existing one at Notting Hill Gate, which for ten years had possessed an 'Iron Church' on a freehold site purchased by a leading member, Sir James Clarke Lawrence, and they had already raised a building fund of over 4,000. The British and Foreign Unitarian Association agreed to purchase Essex Street Chapel for 15,000, and launched an appeal for £25,000 - £10,000 of it for reconstruction purposes, to turn it into Essex Hall. Sir James and his brother Edwin sold the Notting Hill site to the joint congregations for £5,000 another valuation approved by the Charity Commissionand handed the money over to the Essex Appeal Fund. Mr. Frederick Nettlefold bought No. 1, Essex Street, a hairdresser's house and shop in 1880, next door to the Chapel (familiar in later years as 'Lawrence House') for £2,300, and gave it as a contribution to the Funddestined in the future to prove an invaluable extension of the available premises. These now, in 1885, passed into the legal hands of the newly appointed Essex

Hall Trustees, and into the practical hands of the Unitarian Architect, Mr. T. Chatfeild Clarke, and the builders, ready for the work of destruction and reconstruction. So, thanks to the Charity Commission, everybody was happy: the Essex Street congregation and their Kensington friends in the possession of ample means to erect Essex Church and Manse; and the denomination at large in the possession of a home for the homeless at last!

We began this chapter with a reference to the Baptists and Congregationalists; let us return to them in conclusion, for their story, in regard to the progress towards denominational unity and the acquisition of permanent headquarters, is astonishingly similar to ours. Throughout the greater part of the 19th century neither the Baptist Union nor the Congregational Union had premises of their own, with even a modest full-time staff. The Congregational Union built Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, in 1875; previously they had occupied a series of temporary and inadequate quarters. The Baptist Union, ending the century with some years of accommodation in their Missionary Society's offices, built and opened Baptist Church House in Southampton Row in 1903. Thus there is nothing exceptional in the 'inevitability of gradualness' which marked our parallel Unitarian advance!

Previous   Next