Founded 1714 Opened 1714 Phone +44 20 8940 4616 | ||
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Website www.saintanne-kew.org.uk Similar The Barn Church - Kew, Our Lady of Loreto and St Winefri, St Luke's Church - Kew, Kew Baptist Church, Raleigh Road United C Profiles | ||
St Anne's Church, Kew, is a parish church in Kew in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The building, which dates from 1714, and is Grade II* listed, forms the central focus of Kew Green. The raised churchyard, which is on three sides of the church, has two Grade II* listed monuments – the tombs of the artists Johan Zoffany (d. 1816) and Thomas Gainsborough (d. 1788). The French Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), who stayed in 1892 at 10 Kew Green, portrayed St Anne's in his painting Church at Kew (1892).
Contents
Services
On Sundays the church usually holds three morning services – a Said Eucharist in traditional language, Morning Prayer and a Sung Eucharist. An Evening Prayer is also held.
Communications
St Anne's Church produces a quarterly newsletter, Collect.
History
Originally built in 1714 on land given by Queen Anne, as a church within the parish of Kingston, St. Anne's Church has been extended several times since, as the settlement of Kew grew with royal patronage. In 1770, King George III undertook to pay for the first extension, designed by Joshua Kirby who, four years later, was buried in the churchyard. The church became a parish church in its own right in 1788. In 1805, a new south aisle, designed by Robert Browne, was added, along with a gallery for the royal family's own use. Under King William IV it was further extended in 1837 by Sir Jeffry Wyattville. A mausoleum designed by the architect Benjamin Ferrey was added in 1851 and an eastern extension in 1882. Further extensions occurred in 1902, 1979 and 1988. The interior of the roof was repainted in 2013. To mark the church's tercentenary in 2014, the baptismal font was replaced.
The present parish hall, which is at right angles to the church and incorporates the previous choir vestry, was built in 1978. Its design echoes the materials and forms of the church building.
A collection of funerary hatchments honouring deceased royal or noble parishioners is on display in front of the church's gallery, flanking a rare representation of Queen Anne's coat of arms. A hatchment commemorating George III's son, Ernest Augustus I of Hanover, was hung in the church in 1821. It is now in the collection of the Museum of Richmond.
Just outside the church walls, on the south side, is the Kew war memorial, in the form of a large stone cross, commemorating the local people who fell in the First and Second World Wars. Their names are listed not on the memorial, but in the church.