‘Clergy House’ as St Matthew’s House was originally known, was built on the site of the former 17th century public house, the ‘Greycoat Boy’ on the corner of St Ann’s Street and Great Peter Street, adjoining the church. Some of the original wall is still visible in the cellar beneath the house. This was one of three pubs which were in close proximity to St Matthew’s Church, another of which was in St Ann’s Street.
Before 1891, when the house was completed, the clergy lived in a house in Great Smith Street.
Money was raised for the Clergy House and St Matthew’s Schools through a number of events in the West End. In an article which appeared in the 1929 parish magazine, (ref 9) written by a close friend of Fr. W. Trevelyan, recounted:
‘Funds … for the building of the present Clergy House adjoining the Church in Great Peter Street, and for other parochial organisations were raised largely through meetings held in well-known houses in the West End of London. Meetings [were] presided over by men whose names were well-known. One year a meeting was held in Hill Street, Berkeley Square, at which Mr Shaw-Stewart presided. Another meeting was in the house of Lord Brassey, yet another in Carlton House Terrace, where Mr George Curzon, (afterwards Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India) presided.
Possibly one of the most successful meetings was one held in Park Lane at the house of Mr George Wyndham, where Lady Grosvenor proved herself a charming hostess and made quite clear her interest in the work being carried out in the Parish of St Matthew, Westminster’. [9]
