The Queen's Chapel - Marlborough Road, London, UK
N 51° 30.297 W 000° 08.225
30U E 698682 N 5709866
The Queen's Chapel is part of St James' Palace and is located on the north east side of Marlborough Road to the east of the palace.
Waymark Code: WMKJGX
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/21/2014
Views: 2
A plaque on the front of the chapel tells us:
The Queen's Chapel
St James's Palace
Designed by Inigo Jones, the building of the Queen's Chapel
was begun in 1623 for the use of the Spanish Infanta on her
proposed marriage to the then Prince Charles.
This marriage did not take place, and the Chapel was
completed by 1627 for Henrietta Maria, whom Charles I
married on 1st May, 1625.
Used as a barracks from 1642, it was restored as a Chapel
upon the marriage of Charles II to Catherine of Braganza
in 1662, who established a Friary in its grounds. Mary of Modena
worshipped here until 1688, after which it was given over to
Reformed Worship by William III.
Another plaque also advises that:
The Queen's Chapel
Sunday Services:
8.30am Holy Communion
11.15am Sung Eucharist (1st Sunday in the month & Great Festivals) Sung Morning Prayer & Sermon other Sundays
Weekday Services:
12.30am Holy Communion on Holy Days as announced
The public are welcome to attend these Services
From Easter Day until the end of July these Services are held
in The Queen's Chapel, Marlborough Road and from
October until Good Friday in the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace
The Chapel is closed during August & September
The chapel is a Grade I listed building with the entry at the English Heritage website telling us:
Built as a Catholic chapel. Begun 1623 and largely completed 1626-27, by Inigo Jones, refurnished for Catherine of Braganza 1662- c. 1680. Brick, rendered from the outset to look like stone, with Portland dressings, slate roof. Plain rectangular box with pedimented gable ends. 3 main windows, the centre one arched to West end and broad Venetian window to East end. Pedimented windows to North and South sides. Very fine interior with elliptical painted and gilded coffered vault with furnishing principally of Wren's time but retaining Jones's Royal Pew in the West gallery with its large chimneypiece and the communion rail also to his design etc.
Wikipedia further tells us:
The Queen's Chapel is a chapel in central London, England, that was designed by Inigo Jones and built between 1623 and 1625 as an external adjunct to St. James's Palace for Roman Catholic queen Henrietta Maria. It is one of the facilities of the British monarch's personal religious establishment, the Chapel Royal, and should not be confused with the 1540 building known as the Chapel Royal within the palace and just across Marlborough road.
It was built as a Roman Catholic chapel at a time when the construction of Catholic churches was prohibited in England, and was used by Charles I's Catholic queen Henrietta Maria. From the 1690s it was used by Continental Protestant courtiers. It was built as an integral part of St James's Palace, but when the adjacent private apartments burned down in 1809 they were not replaced and in 1856-57 Marlborough Road was built between the palace and the Queen's Chapel. The result is that physically the chapel now appears to be more part of the Marlborough House complex than of St James's Palace. It became a Chapel Royal again in 1938.
The Queen's Chapel was where, for several days, the body of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was placed during the preparations for her lying-in-state in Westminster Hall.
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