Main MenuChelsea Old Church is the original parish church of Chelsea, and served the whole village of Chelsea until a ‘New Church’, St Luke’s on Sydney Street, was built in 1824 to accommodate the burgeoning population of the area.
Formally known as the Parish Church of All Saints, Chelsea, we serve an area stretching from the World’s End estates in the west to Oakley Street in the east – from the King’s Road to the river. This very historic church, with its Tudor past, is now a dynamic church with people of all ages worshipping God in the full tradition of our Anglican heritage.
A little history
During the tenure of the first recorded Rector, Reginald de St Albans, a papal letter of 1290 granted “relaxation of one year and forty days of enjoined penance to penitents who should visit the Church of ‘Chelchuthe’ in the Diocese of London on the feast of All Saints, to whom it is dedicated, and on the anniversary of its dedication”. The original parish church of Chelsea, Old Church was dedicated to All Saints and later St. Luke; then it reverted to All Saints when St Luke’s, Sydney Street, was completed in 1824.
Architecture
Although built at a time when Wren’s new London churches were being designed and raised, the 17th-century work at Chelsea has a character quite of its own. At first glance, the great brick tower might easily be mistaken for a product of the reign of Henry VIII. It was doubtless a local design, wrought by Chelsea people, who were still far enough away from London to be able to retain their own individuality and to give to their building its local colour. The whole of the new structure was built of brick — a fine warm-toned brick — with scarcely any admixture of stone.
