The former Chapel of the former St Mark's Training College, Chelsea, was designed by Edward Blore (1787-1879) in collaboration with the college's first principal, Derwent Coleridge (1800-1883), son of the poet Samuel Coleridge, a keen amateur architect and an important educationist.
Set up in 1840, St Mark's was one of the two first ever teacher training colleges in England (the other being St John's, Battersea), and both Blore and his pupil Henry Clutton, were very much involved in the project. They designed appropriate facilities close to the main building itself, Stanley House, a grand old Chelsea mansion set in extensive grounds. In 1843, the Illustrated London News reported: "The college, as now complete, consists externally of a centre and a handsome wing, added by the late proprietor, and a quadrangle erected by the society from the designs of Mr. Blore, in one of the Italian styles ("Training-College for Schoolmasters"). Then, in 1853, Clutton added "a new laboratory, three classrooms, a large dining hall and dormitories.... in the Byzantine style... at an economical cost of £8,000" (Vowles 57).
But the chapel, together with the octagonal Practising School (seen just to its right in the scanned image above) constituted Blore's first and most impressive contributions to this collaborative work. The chapel was not at all peripheral: it was a fundamental and vital part of the institution, which was originally set up by the National Society for Promoting Religious Education. Indeed, Coleridge "saw the daily choral service in the college chapel as the moral foundation of the college" (Durrant). The Practising School was, as its name suggests, mainly for practice teaching, but was later used as a library.
The Grade II listed chapel is described in the listing text as being in "Romanesque style in Suffolk brick. Cruciform plan with apsidal east end. Gabled transepts with turrets at links with nave and at nave west end." The chapel, now divided to make two houses, is situated on Fulham Road, London, SW10 9UZ.
Various changes took places over the years, including some in the Edwardian period which have been heavily criticised in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's planning and conservation records. In 1923, the institution was amalgamated with the other pioneering teacher-training college, St John's College in Battersea, the founding principal of which had been the influential social reformer, Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth. Fifty years later the college moved to Plymouth, where in 2013 it officially became Plymouth Marjon University. The old names do linger on, though. According to the University's history page, "We are now known as Plymouth Marjon University, a trading name of The University of St Mark & St John." In 1980 the buildings became Chelsea College, which then (from 1985-96) became King's College London's Chelsea campus.
Just to complete the afterlife of the main buildings: Stanley House has since been restored at huge expense and has reverted to being a private residence, and the chapel itself has now been converted into two spacious and elegantly appointed upmarket homes. None of Clutton's later additions have survived. The chapel is credited to Blore, and whether, and to what extent, Clutton was involved in the Octagon building is not clear.
First image from an illustration in the Illustrated London News article. Later images cropped and corrected for perspective from photographs by Edwardx, originally posted on Wikimedia on the Creative Commons licence, CC BY-SA 3.0. Text by Jacqueline Banerjee, with thanks to Shirley Nicholson for telling us about this unique building. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one. Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Link to Related Material
Bibliography
"Celebrating the early days of the College of St Mark in Chelsea." Plymouth Marjon University. Web. 12 June 2024. https://www.marjon.ac.uk/about-marjon/news-and-events/marjon-news/celebrating-the-early-days-of-the-college-of-st-mark-in-chelsea.html
"Chapel at College of St Mark and St John." Historic England. Web. 12 June 2024.
Durrant, Cherry. "Coleridge, Derwent (1800–1883), writer and educationist." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Web. 12 June 2024.
"The History of Marjon." Plymouth Marjon University. Web. 12 June 2024. https://www.marjon.ac.uk/about-marjon/history/
Planning and Conservation — Extract from the Planning Records. Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Web. 12 June 2024. https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/planningedm/img_planningapps/00035760.pdf
"Training-College for Schoolmasters." Illustrated London News No. 44, Vol. II (4 March 1843): 158. Internet Archive. Web. 12 June 2024.
Vowles, Gordon. Henry Clutton: Victorian Architect of Gothic Revival Churches and Country Houses. Willington: The Gostwick Press, 2022. [Review]
Created 12 June 2024