Enfilade

St Mary, Paddington Green, London, 1788–91, designed by John Plaw. It is a one of the finest surviving interiors from the late Georgian period, one carefully designed for the auditory worship of the age. (Photograph by Geoff Brandwood).

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Presented by the Ecclesiological Society:

Christopher Webster, Late-Georgian Churches: A Reassessment
Online and In-person, Art Workers’ Guild, London, Thursday, 21 April 2022, 7pm

In the summer of 2022, Christopher Webster’s book Late-Georgian Churches: Anglican Architecture, Patronage, and Church-Going in England, 1790–1840 will be published by John Hudson Publishing. It will be the first comprehensive study of church-building in the late Georgian period. After centuries of post-Reformation inactivity, the Church of England began to address the desperate shortage of accommodation and build on a huge scale. Almost all the leading architects were involved and, amongst approximately 1500 new churches, there are some outstanding designs—buildings of the very highest order architecturally. The lecture will examine these churches, free from the Ecclesiological zeal that condemned them and has, for so long, prevented their serious study. It will consider them in the context of Georgian auditory worship and the period’s attitudes to the architecture of the past. Revealing some remarkable buildings, the talk will also explore what church-going involved at the time.

The Ecclesiological Society’s annual general meeting (for ES members) will begin at 6.30pm followed at 7.00 by Dr. Webster’s lecture (for the general public).

We are excited to provide the option of attending the annual meeting and this lecture either in-person at the Art Workers’ Guild or by Zoom for those who would like to join from home. Current government regulations suggest the in-person option will be entirely feasible, and it is the organisers’ intention that it be available: only new government restrictions will remove that option. After so long, we would love to see you in person and to enjoy a glass of wine! In the event, however, of new regulations, the lecture will still take place, though solely as a Zoom event–in which case it is assumed that all those who have booked for ‘live’ attendance will be content to move online. For those who opt to join us via Zoom, the link to the meeting will be sent a couple of days in advance.