Sacred London

Some of the finest churches, synagogues, mosques and temples. Architectural + decorative beauty plus historical significance.

Fitzrovia Chapel

The Middlesex Hospital is gone; the gold chapel it was built around is still standing.

Churches

Looking east down the chapel: gold mosaic vaults studded with stars over marble-clad walls, a band of mosaic roundels along the arch, and tall stained-glass windows in the apse and on either side. — Pearson's chapel, looking towards the apse. Photo by Colin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Straight up at the vault: gold mosaic panels scattered with small stars, crossed by patterned ribs meeting at a roundel, with the tops of arched windows at the edges. — The nave vault, in gold mosaic. Photo by Clyde Charles Brown, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Through a marble arch to the altar at the far end of a lamp-lit passage of marble walls, with memorial tablets to the hospital's surgeon and to the two Pearsons set into the wall around the arch. — The way in, past the tablets to Pearson and his son. Photo by AndyScott, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A domed mosaic ceiling of dark blue and gold: a cross in a starred roundel in the middle, an angel on either side holding a scroll, and bands of gold leaf pattern around the rim. — The baptistery dome. Photo by AndyScott, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The ceiling of the chapel from below: gold mosaic vaults crossed by patterned ribs, marble-lined walls and stained-glass windows all round. — Photo by Colin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A marble arch inscribed in mosaic letters with Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis, framing the organ's pipes in a carved wooden case, with a brass lantern hanging in front. — The organ, under the Gloria. Photo by Colin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Looking west across the chapel to the organ gallery under its inscribed arch, the gold-starred vault above, stained-glass windows on either side and marble and mosaic walls below. — The organ end, from the nave. Photo by Colin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

John Loughborough Pearson began it in 1891 as the chapel of the Middlesex Hospital, and it took more than forty years to finish - he died in 1897 and his son Frank carried it on, so what you stand in is two architects' work. The first service was on Christmas Day 1891 and the Bishop of London opened it properly the following June.

The interior is the reason to come: more than forty kinds of marble, cobalt and gold inscriptions, and a vaulted ceiling of gold mosaic carrying Pearson's Alpha and Omega. The hospital closed in 2005 and was demolished, and the chapel was left standing alone in the middle of the flats and offices that replaced it. A charity restored it between 2013 and 2015 - seventy per cent of the ceiling needed re-gilding - and reopened it in 2016. Free, and no booking required.

Where: Fitzroy Place, 2 Pearson Square, W1T 3BF
Nearest station: Goodge Street · 4 min walk

Google Maps @fitzroviachapel fitzroviachapel.org

Most Mondays to Wednesdays, 11:00 to 17:00, free.

Also at least one Sunday a month, 12:00 to 17:00, and daily while an exhibition is on; the chapel's What's On page carries the dates.

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.