St. John's Chapel

St. John's Chapel, Great James-st. Bedford-Row,—at the N. end, being the corner of Chapel-st. from 25, Lamb's-conduit-st.

St. John's Chapel, Bedford-row, is situated at the corner of Chapel-street and Great James-street, at the north end of Bedford-row. It is an episcopal chapel of the Church of England. Its present minister is the Hon. and Rev. Gerard Noel, M.A.

St. John's Chapel, Bedford-row, at the corner of Chapel-street and Great James-street, was the frequent scene of schism from its first erection for Dr. Sacheverell: it was subsequently occupied by the Rev. Mr. Cecil (Low Church); by the Rev. Dr. Dillon, of unenviable notoriety; the Rev. Daniel Wilson (Bishop of Calcutta); the Rev. Mr. Sibthorp, given to change; and by the Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, who after 22 years' ministry, preached his farewell sermon here, Dec. 3, 1848; and on Aug. 9, 1849, was publicly baptized in John-street Chapel, of which he became minister. St. John's has been altered and enlarged, and re-opened in 1866.

St. John's Chapel, Bedford Row, and the Early Evangelical Clergy of London.

This chapel, once memorable in the annals of the "Evangelical" movement in the church, has now entirely disappeared, having been pulled down about the year 1859. It stood north of Bedford Row, in or adjoining Great James Street, where some new buildings are inscribed "Chapel Street." I have in my possession a sermon "preach'd upon opening a new Chapel, now known by the name of St. John the Evangelist, within the Parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, on the 10th day of February, 1722–3. By Nathanael Marshall, D.D., Preacher of the said Chapel, and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty," Lond., 1727. The subject of the sermon is "The Jewish Synagogue the Model of Christian Worship, or of Worship in Christian Churches."

St. John's Chapel became subsequently famous during the ministry of the Rev. Richard Cecil, the well-known preacher of the last century. His memoir, published shortly after his decease, says that he was invited in the year 1780 to turn his thoughts to this chapel, then much neglected and out of repair. The result was that Cecil took charge of it, and continued to minister there between twenty and thirty years. Among his successors were the Rev. Daniel Wilson, afterwards Bishop of Calcutta, and the Hon. and Rev. Baptist W. Noel, who seceded from the Church and joined the Baptists. Speaking of St. John's Chapel, and its most distinguished minister, the high-minded and disinterested Cecil, whose powers as a preacher must have been of a very high order, I am desirous of making a note of the house in Little James Street in which he resided. This is No. 15, at the corner of John's Mews, now occupied by a wine-merchant.

—Notes and Queries, 5th S. II. December 12, 1874, pp. 461–462.

[St. John's Chapel] On the west side of [John] street is the Baptist chapel where the Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel preached to crowded congregations, after his secession from the Established Church in 1848. He had previously been for several years the minister of the Episcopal Chapel of St. John, which stood in Chapel Street, Great James Street, at the north end of Bedford Row. The old chapel, which was pulled down soon after Mr. Noel left it, was a plain square brick building, and may be described as having been for half a century the head-quarters of fashionable Evangelicalism, for the string of carriages waiting at its doors about one o'clock on Sundays sometimes extended the entire length of the street. In the early part of the present century the minister of St. John's Chapel was the Rev. Daniel Wilson, afterwards vicar of Islington, and eventually Bishop of Calcutta.