St Nicholas Church, Chiswick
The Parish Church of Saint Nicholas
Exterior view
St Nicholas Church, Chiswick
region:GB51°29′10″N0°15′02″W / 51.4860°N 0.2506°W /51.4860; -0.2506
Location	Church Street, Chiswick, London
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
Website	stnicholaschiswick.org
History
Status	Parish church
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Administration
Diocese	London
Archdeaconry	Middlesex
Deanery	Hounslow
Parish	St Nicholas with St Mary Magdalene, Chiswick
Clergy
Vicar	Simon Brandes
Listed Building – Grade II*
Designated	11 July 1951
Reference no.	1189405

St Nicholas Church, Chiswick, is an English Anglicanparish church. The Grade II* listed church is in Church Street,Chiswick, London, near theRiver Thames.^[1]Old Chiswick developed as a village around the church fromc. 1181.[2] The tower was built at some time between 1416 and 1435.

The current church dates from 1882 to 1884, when most of the building except the tower was demolished and rebuilt at the expense of the brewer Henry Smith of the nearbyFuller, Smith and Turner brewery. Several monuments survive, mainly in the tower. In the churchyard is a monument to the Italian poet and patriotUgo Foscolo; his remains were returned to Italy, but the Italian government added an inscription to the monument. The painterWilliam Hogarth's monument, near the church, has anepitaph by the actorDavid Garrick. In the burial ground is the grave ofFrederick Hitch, aVictoria Cross recipient and veteran of theBattle of Rorke's Drift.

There has been a church on theChiswick site since at least 1181 in Norman times.^[2][3] The church wasformally visited by a senior cleric and an inventory made at "the unusually early date of 1252":^[4]

Ornamenta inventa apud Chesewith die Sanctorum Johannis et Pauli Anno Domini M^o. CC^o. L^o. secundo.^[4](Ornaments found at Chiswick on the day of Saints John and Paul, [26 June] 1252 A.D.)

This first inventory lists "a good and sufficientmissal sent there from the treasury ofSt Paul's"; two graduals; a badly boundtropary; an oldlectionary; ananthem book; apsalter but not the expected manual. Valuables included a small silverchalice; a red velvetchasuble; twovestments; three corporals; fivealtar cloths; an arras cloth; an oldchrismatory; two brass and two tincandlesticks; and afont without a lock. Thechancel roof needed repairing, and the church was at the time not dedicated. Visitations were repeated in 1297 and 1458.^[5]Mary Cromwell, Countess Fauconberg, daughter ofOliver Cromwell, was buried in the church on 24 March 1713.^[6] More recently, MajorBernard Montgomery, later Field Marshal and 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, married Betty Carver in the church on 27 July 1927.^[7]

The current church dates from 1882 to 1884, when it was rebuilt to a design by the architectJohn Loughborough Pearson, except for the west tower which was built for William Bordall (vicar 1416–1435). Because of the small distance between the tower and the road at Church Street, Pearson made the nave short but wide, so it is nearly square in plan. TheDuke of Devonshire gave £1,000 for the rebuilding, but most of the cost was paid for by Henry Smith of the nearby Griffin Brewery company,Fuller, Smith & Turner.^[3] The church is built of courses of squared Kentishragstone masonry in thePerpendicular style. It has a stone coping with a copper roof.^[1]

Inside the church, surviving 15th-century features include the tall archway to the west tower and thehood-mould over the window above the west door.^[1]

The monuments in the church include an unnamed early English foliated cross gravemarker (now in the porch), and the following named memorials:^[1][8]

• Ralph Wenwood, d. 1799, wall tablet inswag surround^[8]
• Charlotte Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, d. 1773, wall tablet andurn. She was the second wife ofCharles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset^[8]
• SirThomas Chaloner, d. 1615,^[3] and his two wives, d. 1603 and 1615, heraldic achievement overbaldachino, stone curtains held open by figures on sides; kneeling figures of Sir Thomas and his wife^[8]
• Mary Litcott, d. 1599, brass^[8]
• Thomas Bentley, d. 1780, representation ofsarcophagus by Thomas Scheemakers; Bentley wasJosiah Wedgwood's business partner^[9][8]
• Richard Taylor,^[10] d. 1698, urn ontasselled swag surround held bycherubs^[8]
• Richard Tayler, d. 1716,Corinthianaedicule,heraldiccartouche, statues ofFather Time andAngel of Death^[8]
• Charles Holland the actor, d. 1769, bust onobelisk,epitaph by the actorDavid Garrick^[8]
• James Howard, d. 1669, flaming urn on Ionic aedicule, inscription panel^[8]
• Thomas Plucknett, d. 1721,broken pediment and Ionic aedicule^[8]
• John Taylor, d. 1729, open pediment, heraldic achievement intympanum over Ionic aedicule^[8]
• Thomas Tomkins, d. 1816, tablet with medallion portrait^[8]
• Charles Barnevett, d. 1695, pedimented wall tablet^[8]
• John Beckwith, d. 1815, rectangular fluted tablet^[8]

Among the monuments in the churchyard and the adjacent burial ground are:^[3][11]

• Ugo Foscolo, d. 1812, Italian writer, poet and patriot. In 1871, his remains were taken to Italy, but inscriptions were added to the monument in Chiswick by the Italian government, as part of its campaign of glorification of the new Italian state.^[12]
• Percy Harris, (1876 – 1952), Liberal Party politician. His monument is Grade II* listed. The relief carving byEdward Bainbridge Copnall depicts theresurrection of the dead; it was carved in the late 1920s and acquired by Harris for display in his garden at Morton House, Chiswick Mall.^[13]
• William Hogarth the painter, d. 1764, and relatives; epitaph poem byDavid Garrick^[11]
• Charles Holland, actor; epitaph by David Garrick^[11]
• Henry Joy, d. 1893, trumpeter in theCharge of the Light Brigade^[11]
• Philip James de Loutherbourg, d. 1812, landscape painter; mausoleum was designed bySir John Soane.^[11]
• James Abbott McNeill Whistler, d. 1903, artist; a classical tomb in bronze (by the wall)^[11]
• Richard Wright, bricklayer toLord Burlington, owner ofChiswick House^[11]
• Frederick Hitch, d. 1913,Victoria Cross recipient andRorke's Drift veteran^[14][11]

• Memorials, arranged by date
• 
  Mary Litcott, 1599
• 
  Richard Taylor, 1698
• 
  James Howard, 1669
• 
  Thomas Plucknett, 1721
• 
  Richard Tayler, 1716
• 
  John Taylor, 1729
• 
  William Hogarth, 1764
• 
  Ugo Foscolo, 1812,
  reworked 1871

• St Michael and All Angels, Bedford Park, where Henry Smith was also involved

• Clegg, Gillian (1995).Chiswick Past. Historical Publications.ISBN 0-94866-733-8.
• Phillimore, W. P. W.; Whitear, W. H., eds. (1897).Historical Collections Relating to Chiswick. 36 Essex Street, Strand, London: Phillimore & Co.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
• Riall, Lucy (2007).Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero.Yale University Press.ISBN 978-0300112122.

• Chiswick History, by Gillian CleggArchived 15 April 2016 at theWayback Machine

• Grade II* listed churches in London
• Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Hounslow
• Church of England church buildings in the London Borough of Hounslow
• Diocese of London
• History of the London Borough of Hounslow
• Chiswick
• Buildings and structures in Chiswick
• Churches on the Thames

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