Chelsea Christ Church, Middlesex Genealogy

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Christ Church was consecrated on 26th June 1839. It was originally a ‘Chapel of Ease’ to the parish church of St. Luke, Sydney Street, but was given its own parish in 1860.

In 1839 Chelsea was still an independent village separated from London by open countryside; however, there was pressure for development, particularly for the construction of streets of small cottages to house the numerous servants who were employed in the grand houses on Cheyne Walk and in the newly constructed streets and squares of Belgravia and Hans Town.

It was as a church for these working class people that Christ Church was built and it was designed to accommodate the maximum number of people at minimum cost. The construction cost was just over £4,000. (St. Luke’s Church, built 15 years earlier cost ten times this sum.)

The site for the new church was part of an extensive area of land used for market-gardening, just off Flood Street, which was then one of Chelsea’s main shopping streets.

[See this church's website for more historical background.]