Perhaps you noticed the tower first. St Anne’s Church serves the Soho section of London. It stands as a testament to resilience. The parish was dedicated to Saint Anne. This dedication occurred because Bishop Henry Compton had been tutor to Princess Anne before she became Queen.
Construction on St Anne’s Church started in 1677. The location was then the countryside of Soho Fields. William Talman and Christopher Wren may have been the architects. The original design featured an 80 feet long basilican church. It was 64 feet wide. A 70 feet high west end tower completed the design.
The church was consecrated on 21 March 1686. Bishop Henry Compton officiated. This marked its role as the parish church. It served the new civil and ecclesiastical parish of St Anne Within the Liberty of Westminster. This area was created from part of St Martin in the Fields parish. Today St Anne’s Church is part of the Deanery of Westminster in the Diocese of London.
Let’s talk about education. In 1699, a tuition-free parish school opened for boys. Girls were admitted starting in 1704. Music filled the air at St Anne’s Church. In 1699, the church received an organ. It came from the Dowager-Queen’s Chapel in St James’s Palace. William Croft became the church’s first organist in 1700. He composed the tune “St Anne” to O God, Our Help in Ages Past. This organ was removed in 1798. It found a new home at St Michael Paternoster Royal.
The tower of St Anne’s Church wasn’t completed until 1718. Local carpenter John Meard added a timber spire. Many notable people have connections to St Anne’s. Edmund Andros was buried in the churchyard in 1714. Actress Hester Davenport was buried there in 1717. Edward Harley, 3rd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, married here in 1724/5. Prince William Henry, younger brother of George III, was baptised here in 1743. Actress and dancer Arabella Menage was baptised here in 1782.
By 1800, the tower became unstable. A Tower Rebuilding Committee held 41 meetings without a solution. Architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell was hired to design a replacement. The original tower was demolished. However, the 1 ton clock bell, cast in 1691, was saved. The new tower’s brickwork finished in 1801. The bell chamber’s Portland stonework was done by March 1803. The copper cupola was completed in May 1803. The new tower’s ground floor became the parish vestry room. Later it became a robing room for the clergy. Dorothy L Sayers’ ashes are interred in the brick chamber beneath it. She was a longtime Churchwarden and member of the St Anne’s Society. David Williams and William Hazlitt are among the 19th-century burials in the churchyard. The body of Thomas Pitt, 2nd Baron Camelford, was placed in the crypt in 1804.
The choir and music program at St Anne’s Church have been famous since its consecration. Sir Joseph Barnby served as organist from 1871 to 1888. He introduced the first UK performance of Bach’s “Saint John Passion”. The church held royal command performances. The first religious service with music broadcast by radio came from this church in the 1920s.
Tragedy struck on the night of 24 September 1940. The Blitz left the entire church burned out. Only the tower remained, derelict. From then on, St Thomas’s Regent Street and St Anne’s House were used for worship. Though Jacques Groag suggested keeping the ruins as a war memorial in 1945, the church would not be rebuilt.
The site was deconsecrated and prepared for sale in 1953. The parish combined with those of St Thomas’s Church and St Peter’s Church. This created the Parish of St Anne with St Thomas and St Peter.
The tower served as a chapel for a time in the 1950s. The Soho Society partly restored it in 1979. A full restoration occurred during the 1990-91 rebuilding of the church. The tower is now a Grade II* listed building. Princess Anne laid a foundation stone on 12 March 1990. The new complex opened and was rededicated on St Anne’s Day, 26 July 1991.
From 1941 to 1958, the St Anne Society encouraged links between the literary world and the Church of England. The Parochial Church Council has been active in social work with London’s poor and homeless. The church is a thriving community. It hosts many local community and charitable events and meetings. It also houses the Soho Society, anti-homophobic bullying charity Diversity Role Models and its own community coffee shop Sacred Grounds.
In 2016, a redesigned entrance on Dean Street was revealed. UAL London students Lina Viluma and Sherief al Rifa’i designed it. The design won the President’s Award for alterations to a church building in the 2017 Church Architecture Awards. The judges praised its dynamic and inviting entrance. St Anne’s continues to evolve. It remains a vital part of Soho’s vibrant community.