kids encyclopedia robot

St Mary on Paddington Green Church facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
St Mary on Paddington Green
St Mary on Paddington Green Church side entrance.jpg
51°31′13″N 0°10′31″W / 51.5204°N 0.1753°W / 51.5204; -0.1753
Location Little Venice, London, W2 1NB
Country England
Denomination Church of England
Churchmanship Anglo-Catholic
History
Status Active
Architecture
Functional status Parish Church
Administration
Parish Little Venice
Deanery Westminster Paddington
Archdeaconry Archdeaconry of Charing Cross
Episcopal area Two Cities (London and Westminster)
Diocese Diocese of London

St Mary on Paddington Green is an Anglican church in the Parish of Little Venice, London, and forms part of Paddington Green conservation area. Today it stands at the junction of Edgware Road and Harrow Road, overlooking the East end of Westway and the approaches to Marylebone Flyover, so seen by tens of thousands of motorists daily.

History

The present building is the third church on the site, once forming a centrepiece of the ancient villages of Paddington and Lilestone. John Donne preached his first sermon in the original church and William Hogarth was married in the second.

St Mary on Paddington Green with grounds
View to church from Paddington Green

The current Georgian church was commissioned in 1788 and consecrated in 1791. Designed by John Plaw with a Greek Cross ground plan, in yellow London stock brick dressed with white stone. It is one of two confirmed surviving buildings by Plaw in the UK, along with Belle Isle on Windermere. A further building in Romford, known as The Round House, has been attributed to him. John Plaw later worked in Southampton before emigrating to Canada, where he designed several public and private buildings.

The church was altered in the 19th century but was restored to its mid-Georgian appearance by architect Raymond Erith in the early 1970s using some of the compensation for the construction of the urban motorway Westway, alongside the church. Restoration included the chancel being reinstated in its original form, the nave reseated with box pews and the organ moved to the West end. The organ case is dedicated as a memorial to Erith. The church houses monuments to some of the area's residents, including sculptor Joseph Nollekens and lexicographer Peter Mark Roget.

St Mary on Paddington Green - graves in former burial ground, now St Mary's Gardens
Gravestones in St Mary's Gardens

St Mary’s Churchyard

The adjoining churchyard was converted to a public park in the 1890s and is now known as St Mary's Gardens. It consists of grass with scattered trees. The grave of well-known 18th-century actress Sarah Siddons is located towards the northern end. Some headstones from the former churchyard are stacked against the west wall of the Gardens.

St Mary on Paddington Green, adjoining St Mary's Gardens (former burial ground) with view to City of Westminster College
St Mary's Gardens showing view to City of Westminster College

The southern part of the churchyard was destroyed to make way for the approaches to Marylebone Flyover in the 1960s, with exhumed burials being reinterred in an area of Mill Hill cemetery and marked with a plaque.

St Mary's Paddington Green Reburials
St Mary's Paddington Green, Reburials in Mill Hill Cemetery, London

Notable burials

Remaining churchyard

  • Rev Dawson Burns (1828–1909), temperance leader
  • William Chandless (1829–1896), Amazon explorer
  • Rev Alexander Geddes (1737–1802), Biblical scholar
  • Arthur Roberts (1852–1933), comedian
  • Basil Owen Woodd (1760–1831), hymn writer (erected by the Crosse baronets)
  • Leonard Charles Wyon (1826–1891), engraver and coin-designer
  • Sir Stephen Spender (1909–1995), poet
  • John Julius Norwich (1929–2018), historian, writer, and television personality

St Mary's Gardens

  • Thomas Banks (1735–1805), sculptor
  • Thomas Blore (1754–1818), historian
  • William Collins RA (1788–1847), artist
  • Matthew Dubourg (1703–1767), violinist
  • Benjamin Haydon, (1786–1846) painter
  • Joseph Nollekens (1737–1823), sculptor, and his father, Joseph Francis Nollekens, artist
  • Emma Paterson (1846–1886), feminist and unionist
  • Thomas Richmond (1771–1837), miniaturist
  • Sarah Siddons (1755–1831), actress
  • Charles Stedman (1753–1812), army officer
kids search engine
St Mary on Paddington Green Church Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.