St James - History Pre World War II
The name Paddington is believed to be derived from two Saxon words Paedin gas and tun meaning the place of the Paedingas. Paeda became King of Mercia in AD 655 and shortly afterwards the Mercians became Christians and also took control of London.
The first mention of a church in Paddington was in an Ecclesiastical Decree of 1222 but there was probably a small church or chapel long before then. By the time of the 1222 Decree Padyngtown cum Capella belonged to the parish of St Margaret’s, Westminster, which in turn came under the Abbot of Westminster.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century Paddington was a small village on the outskirts of London. It was noted for its clean air, health-giving waters and lush pastures. However, all this was to change with the advent of the Grand Junction Canal. The canal began at Braunston in Northamptonshire where other canals joined it from the North of England. In 1801 the new canal had reached Uxbridge and shortly afterwards it arrived in Paddington. This meant that Paddington Basin as the terminus of the canal system became an important trading centre with barges arriving from all over England. By 1808 a weekly market was being held which dealt in cattle, hay etc. and rivaled the famous Smithfield market. By this date, also, a daily packet boat took passengers from Paddington to Uxbridge and back. The single fare was 2s 6d (12p). However, the completion of the Regent’s Canal in 1820 meant that there was now direct water communication with the Thames at Limehouse and so Paddington Basin lost its importance.
This loss of fortune was soon to be reversed. In 1838 the Great Western Railway made Paddington its terminus, making the area the gateway to the West and the South West. So Paddington, in a short space of time, changed from a rural community into a commercial one. In addition, large houses were being built in the region north of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. In 1833, the London and Paddington Steam Carriage Company began running an omnibus service from Paddington to the City, making travel easy between these areas.
All this progress and development meant that the small church on Paddington Green could no longer cope with the growing needs of the Parish, mainly because it was now in the wrong location. Except for Orme’s Chapel - now St Matthew’s, Bayswater - and the nonconformist Independent Paddington Chapel there were no other churches in the south of Paddington, where the population had reached 30,000 and was growing by 2,000 a year.
The Building of St James’s (1843)
In 1830, the Reverend Archibald Montgomery Campbell, who had become Vicar of Paddington the year before, realised that his church was in the wrong place. So with immense vision and energy he decided that a new church must be built.
On 12 February 1841 a site between Sussex Gardens and Gloucester Terrace was granted by the Paddington Trustees for the building of a new church. The architects were John Goldicutt and George Gutch. The total cost of the building was £9,000 which was raised by public subscription. On 13 May 1843 the new church of St James the Less was consecrated by the Bishop, Bishop Charles Blomfield. Just under two years later, on 28 January 1845, St James’s became the Parish Church of Paddington.
The Rebuilding of St James’s (1882)
By the early 1880’s the growth of the population meant that there were six large churches in the Paddington area, St James’s remaining the parish church. It could be thought that this would satisfy the need for worship. However, the then Vicar of Paddington, the Reverend Walter Abbott, decided that much of Gutch’s church should be pulled down. It could only seat about 800 and was not considered a building of much architectural merit. The congregation did not altogether agree with Abbott’s plans but this difficulty was overcome. G.E. Street, the foremost ‘Gothic’ architect of his day (he was the architect of the Law Courts in the Strand), was engaged to redesign the church.
The following appeared in the Illustrated London News of 18 February 1882:
Princess Christian on Saturday last (11 February) laid the foundation-stone of a church to replace the parish church of St James’s, Paddington. The new structure, intended to accommodate 1,300 persons, and which will cost £14,000, will be from the designs of the late Mr. Street. Several Ladies and children presented to Her Royal Highness contributions towards the purchase of an organ, to cost about £1,000.
(Princess Christian was a daughter of Queen Victoria.)
Owing to the lack of space and the need to continue services with the least interruption, Street adopted the novel plan of turning the church completely around, so that the ‘east’ end became the ‘west’ end and constructing his new church over and around the existing one. So there arose above the grim, galleried 1843 building the present broad and lofty church which has a singular impressiveness. It is decorated in Gothic style and its outside is of brick faced with flint and Corby stone. The tower, spire, porches and crypt were retained from the 1843 building. The whole interior is lined with inlaid Devonshire marble, the work being carried out by Blackler of St Marychurch, Torquay. The new building could seat 1,320 and the ends of the heavy oak pews were carved, in situ, by a group of Church members especially trained for the purpose. No design is repeated.
The church was re-consecrated by the Bishop of London, Dr John Jackson, in December 1882. The whole rebuild had taken less than a year.
The following is a comparison of the dimensions of the two churches:
(Length x breadth x height in feet)
1843 : 100' x 60' x 45' 1843 : 100' x 60' x 45'
The Parish thrived and at the beginning of the century there were Sunday Schools for both sexes and all ages, clubs for coachmen, ostlers and sick and benefit clubs. It was at St James that Bishop Hannington held his farewell meeting before he sailed for Uganda, where he was martyred. At that period the clergy were also chaplains at St Mary’s Hospital, which had opened in 1851 and was to become one of the great London teaching hospitals.
