St Mary's Church, Somers Town

It was designed by Henry William Inwood as a chapel of ease for St Pancras Old Church (which resumed being a parish in its own right in 1852) and built between 1824 and 1827 by I. T. Seabrook.[1] A Parliamentary grant paid for the construction, though local taxation funded the purchases of the chapel's interior decoration and the site itself. It was consecrated on 11th Mary 1826 and soon afterwards it became famous for converting several local people from Roman Catholicism there.[2]

Early on, the chapel was known as "Mr. Judkin's Chapel" or "Seymour Street Chapel" and was attended during his schooldays by Charles Dickens, who was then living nearby with his family at 13 Cranleigh Street.[3] Augustus Pugin satirised the chapel's architecture, comparing it with Bishop Skirlaw's Chapel. The interior was the subject of two schemes, the 1874 one of J K Colling and the 1890 one of R C Reade - in the latter, traceried transoms were added to the windows and the west gallery taken out. In 1888 a chancel was added and the side galleries removed.

It was designated a Grade II listed building on 10 June 1954.[4]

• A former parish priest at St. Mary's was Basil Jellicoe.
• Rob Wickham, curate from 2001 to 2003; later Bishop of Edmonton

• GENUKI