Episode 49. St Mary’s Primrose Hill: A Christian Socialist Case Study

SYNOPSIS

St Mary’s Is a vigorous and dynamic London church on the northern side of Primrose Hill, near Hampstead. It is widely known for its fine liturgy and music in the Anglican tradition, its affirmation of women’s ministry, and its pioneering youth work and social outreach. Yet its current status has grown out of 150 years of developing service to the local population from origins in a 1860s Boys’ Home in Regent’s Park Road, which had the great voice of Christian Socialism, F. D. Maurice, on its steering committee.

As often in the Victorian Church of England, social concern amongst radical clergy was linked to spats with the ecclesiastical establishment over ritualism in services. Yet well before 1901, when Percy Dearmer was appointed vicar, church life had consolidated. And from that point, St Mary’s settled down to almost fifteen years as a canvas for the expression of ideas about historically correct and aesthetically pleasing worship as expounded in Dearmer’s influential 1899 treatise, The Parson’s Handbook. One of the most personally charismatic, socially radical and creative figures in Edwardian Anglicanism, Dearmer used St Mary’s to try out several new entries from his controversial English Hymnal (1906). Edited by the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, it set high literary and musical standards and provided a historical survey of the best hymnody across traditions as well as bringing folk-song melodies into modern worship. News spread and for several decades St Mary’s attracted socially liberal and artistic types to its services, and also radical curates, like Conrad Noel, who adapted its beautiful sacramental worship and radical politics to their own churches.

The episode covers the urban geography of London across time, and how St Mary’s has adapted to a shifting demographic, two world wars, the ordination of women (of which Dearmer was an early supporter), modern social expectations and the changing needs of the local population.

GUESTS

Dr Christopher Kitching is Chairman of the Trustees of St Mary the Virgin Primrose Hill and the church’s Honorary Archivist. His book on St Mary’s was published in 2022. A retired professional archivist, Christopher is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society. Between 1992 and 2004 he was Secretary of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. Christopher was awarded a CBE in 2004 for his services to manuscript heritage.

Simon’s interview with Christopher Kitching was recorded at St Mary’s Primrose Hill on 7 March 2024.