All Saints Cathedral, Camden Street, London, originally All Saints Church, Camden Town, St Pancras, Middlesex, is a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

in the

Camden Town Camden Town () is an area in the London Borough of Camden, around north-northwest of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is identified in the London Plan as one of 34 major centres in Greater London. Laid out as a residential distri ...

area of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. It was built for the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

, but it is now a

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

church known as the Greek Orthodox Cathedral Church of All Saints. It stands where Camden Street and Pratt Street meet.

History

Camden Town was developed from the 1790s onwards in the then largely rural parish of St Pancras, on the northern fringe of London. The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

was one of the oldest in England, but it had been in gradual decline since the 14th century when the weight of the parish population became the northern parts of what was becoming

Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town, close to Hampstead Heath. Kentish Town likely derives its name from Ken-ditch or Caen-ditch, meaning the "bed of a waterw ...

and Camden Town. In 1822 a new parish church,

St Pancras New Church St Pancras Church is a Greek Revival church in St Pancras, London, built in 1819–22 to the designs of William Inwood, William and Henry William Inwood. The church is one of the most important 19th-century churches in England and is a Grade I ...

, on

Euston Road Euston Road is a road in Central London that runs from Marylebone Road to Kings Cross, London, King's Cross. The route is part of the London Inner Ring Road and forms part of the London congestion charge zone boundary. It is named after Euston ...

in the southern part of the parish, was consecrated, but it was intended mainly to serve the population in its immediate vicinity. In 1818 a

Church Building Act Church Building Act is a stock short title used in the United Kingdom for legislation relating to the building of churches. List The Church of Scotland Act 1824 ( 5 Geo. 4. c. 90) is sometimes referred to as the Church Building (Scotland) Act 18 ...

had been passed by Parliament to facilitate the construction of new churches in London's many new districts, including this one for Camden Town. The church was built between 1822 and 1824 and was known as first as the Camden Chapel, then, unofficially, as St Stephen's. It did not receive the dedication of All Saints until 1920. It was designed by the father and son team of

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

and Henry Inwood who were also responsible for

. It is a fairly large building of yellow stock brick, with east and west ends faced in

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...

. The plan is basically rectangular, with an eastern apse mirrored by a semi-circular

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

at the west end. Just behind the portico is a cylindrical stone tower surrounded by columns, in imitation of the

Choragic Monument of Lysicrates The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates near the Acropolis of Athens was erected by the ''Choregos (ancient Greece), choregos'' Lysicrates, a wealthy patron of musical performances in the Theater of Dionysus, to commemorate the prize in the dithyram ...

in Athens. The Ionic order is based on fragments brought back from Greece by Henry Inwood and now in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. The interior has a flat ceiling, with galleries on three sides supported by Ionic columns. The building has generally been praised, but both contemporary writers and later architectural critics such as Sir

John Summerson Sir John Newenham Summerson (25 November 1904 – 10 November 1992) was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century. Early life John Summerson was born at Barnstead, Coniscliffe Road, Darlington. His grandfather wo ...

have argued that the tower is too thin in proportion to the body of the church. It is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. It became a parish church in its own right in 1852. In the 19th century it had a large congregation, like many other Anglican churches in the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

: an 1854 survey of church attendance found that the number of worshippers was 1,650 on Sunday mornings, 630 on Sunday afternoons and 1,430 on Sunday evenings. In the 20th century the congregation decreased and in 1948 All Saints became a Greek Orthodox church, retaining its dedication while St Michael's in Camden Road took over the parish, becoming the main Anglican church in Camden Town. The area acquired a large Greek speaking community in the decades after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, mostly from

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, and the church is still well used, though many of the worshippers now come from the outer suburbs of London. In 1991 All Saints was raised to the status of a cathedral. The church has been renovated a number of times. Most recently since January 2009 under the supervision of English Heritage and co-sponsored by the National Lottery and donations from the Greek Orthodox Community of the parish.

References

*''Camden Town and Primrose Hill Past'' by John Richardson (1991) *''Georgian London'' by

(1988 ed.)

External links

*
Official website of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of All Saints
{{coord, 51, 32, 19.28, N, 00, 08, 16.72, W, type:landmark_scale:3000, display=title Churches completed in 1824 Religious organizations established in 1824 Churches in the London Borough of Camden Church buildings converted to a different denomination Greek Orthodox cathedrals in England Grade I listed churches in London Grade I listed cathedrals 19th-century Church of England church buildings Former Church of England church buildings 1824 establishments in England Camden Town Grade I listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden Cathedrals in London