Читать книгу Sweet Hampstead and Its Associations онлайн

89 страница из 97

From Church Row you walk straight into the gateway of the prettily-situated parish church of St. John, and in those times the well-kept graveyard.

Until 1745 the ancient chapel, originally dedicated to the Virgin, and appropriated in 1461[66] to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, continued to be the only church at Hampstead. It had been patched up and added to and rendered picturesque by reason of age, irregularity of outline, and ruin, and was in so dangerous a condition, to quote the preamble of the petition to rebuild and enlarge, ‘that the inhabitants could not attend Divine worship without apparent hazard to their lives.’ Moreover, it is further stated ‘that Hampstead being a place of great resort, especially in summer-time, the said church, were it in a repairable condition, would not be sufficient to accommodate one-half of the parishioners and others who are desirous of coming to Divine service there.’

The old church was taken down in the spring of 1745, and the present structure consecrated by Dr. Gilbert, Bishop of Llandaff, October, 1747.[67]