Application for a grant

The funds needed to pay for the building of St Matthew’s had to come from a number of sources.   An application was made to the Incorporated Church Building Society (ICBS) by the Archdeacon of Middlesex, the Venerable John Sinclair and the Revd John Jennings, incumbent of the parish of St John the Evangelist, Westminster on 6th June 1845 on behalf of the ‘District of Peter Street’.

The intention was that the church would be built within twelve months from the commencement of the work.

The cost of the site and building with fittings was £10,500.  The following details were included in the ICBS application [2]:

Subscriptions received or promised

From the Diocesan or local Church Building
Society [Metropolitan Churches Fund]       

From HM Commissioners for the Building of Churches

Further means expected from subscriptions or other sources 
 

£3,007


£3,000


£2,000


   £500

£8,507

Deficiency in the funds was therefore £1,993.

The following information was also included in the application to the ICBS and reveals some interesting facts and figures about the future parish [3]:

Extent of the parish in length and breadth: About 1 mile

Poor Rate raised in 1844: £8,451.14 by one rate of 2/6d in £1.

Population of the whole parish  (St John the Evangelist) 1841:     29,000

Population for the district for which the Church is intended:           8,000

The new church would provide accommodation for a further 1,200 worshippers as follows:

Appropriated    
Free             
Free for children

300
650
250

The size of seats ‘allowed for 20 inches by 34 inches for each person except in seats intended exclusively for children where 14 inches x 24 inches is allowed for each child.  The back of the seats are 32 inches in height, Means for kneeling will be provided for by hassocks.’

The patron of the living would be the incumbent of St John’s according to the grant application; this was changed at a later date to Westminster Abbey. 

There would be an endowment of £250 a year from the ‘stall in Westminster annexed to the Rectory of St John’.

The application was not successful in the first instance.  A letter from J H Good, Architect of 9 June 1845, stated

‘Having carefully examined the plans submitted by Messrs Scott and Moffatt, the architects, for a church proposed to be built in the parish of St John, Westminster, in the parish of St John, Westminster, I beg to report:

That the specification of the building submitted by Messrs Scott & Moffatt is not sufficiently explicit. It should give a full particular description of several works.  The thickness of all the walls should be figured in the plans and also sc/e outlings of all the timbers.  As this building will come under the special supervision of the Official Referees appointed in the New Metropolitan Buildings Acts, their certificate should be obtained prior to the Plans being approved by the Society’.

A grant of £700 was finally voted for the new church on 16th June 1845.  The grant was not paid to the church until a certificate recording the completion of the church had been obtained on 19th August 1857 from the Church Commissioner’s Office.

Contents

    Foundation (1849-1851)
        Why St Matthew's was built
               Dean Buckland
               HM Commission
 >            Church Building Society
        Laying the Foundation Stone
                Divine Service
                Lord Grosvenor's speech
                The ceremony

    Malone (1851-1866)
        Consecration
        The new church
        Revd Richard Malone
        The congregation
        The Devil's acre

    Turle (1866-1884)
        Revd William Turle
        Mission Hall

    Trevelyan (1884-1907)
        Revd William Trevelyan
        Ministry at St Matthew's
        Clergy House
        The chapel of Clergy House
        Revd Frank Weston