ST. PAUL’S, Campden-hill, is a large iron structure, standing at one
corner of Vicarage-garden. As an iron building there is very little to
say about it; it is not beautiful—iron buildings never are—but the
situation is so very charming, that, plain as the features are of the
church, the pleasant nook in which it is placed seems quite to take from
its ugliness and lend some of its cheerful pastoral happiness to its iron
tenant. One thing strikes us as worthy of notice—the very large open
porch at the western entrance offers ample shelter and accommodation to a
large dispersing congregation in wet weather, and it has the advantage of
offering protection from heat as well as wet, and keeps the west end of
the building cool; it is like an open vestibule or lobby.
St. Paul’s was erected as a chapel of ease to the parish church, St. Mary
Abbots, Kensington, in the year 1854, so that it was one of the earliest
of this temporary method of providing for public worship; and it may be
added that, from the present firm and substantial appearance of the
structure, it is evident this comparatively inexpensive way of dealing
with the question—where larger funds are not at command—may be made to do
good service through at least a generation. It affords accommodation for
1,200 people, and but few of the sittings are free, not, we believe,
amounting to more than fifty. The church is served by the curates of
Archdeacon Sinclair, Vicar of Kensington, and at present, during the
re-erection of the new parish church, has double service performed in it
every Sunday. The early service at a quarter to ten, and afternoon at
half-past three, at which the Archdeacon’s curates officiate, are for the
congregation of the Old Church, who, _pro tem._, are without
accommodation, and the services at half-past eleven and seven are given
to the congregation of St. Paul’s, when the Archdeacon himself usually
preaches. This is of a high-class character, and remarkable for a very
large preponderance of gaily-dressed ladies, quite in keeping with our
established ideas of a court suburb. The service is Evangelical, the
clerical robes of the simplest character, and the chancel without
conspicuous ornament of any kind, but that which is the greatest adorning
of a church, a reverent and rational performance of Divine worship,
without formalism or Ritualistic affectation of voice and manner. We
were favoured to hear the venerable Bishop of Bangor, who delivered an
impressive sermon, full of Evangelical sentiment, from 1st Epistle of
John, c. iii., v. 2: “Beloved now are we the sons of God; and it doth not
yet appear what we shall be,” &c. A young clergyman—a stranger to the
congregation—read the prayers, Psalms, lessons, and Litany.
The congregation is of course interested in the schools and charities
belonging to the parent church, and contribute in a liberal degree to
their efficiency and support. These will be fully described in their
proper place, when we treat of the beautiful new parish church now in
course of erection.