St George’s, Hanover Square, is an Anglican church built in the early eighteenth century as part of a project to build fifty new churches around London (the Queen Anne Churches).
A civil parish of St George Hanover Square and an ecclesiastical parish were created in 1724 from part of the ancient parish of St Martin in the Fields. The boundaries of the ecclesiastical parish were adjusted in 1830, 1835 and 1865 when other parishes were carved out of it. The ecclesiastical parish still exists today and forms part of the Deanery of Westminster St Margaret in the Diocese of London.
The land for the church was donated by General Sir William Steuart. The church was constructed between 1721 and 1725, funded by the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches, and designed by John James, who had been one of the two surveyors to the commission since 1716.
Its portico, supported by six Corinthian columns, projects across the pavement. There is a tower just behind the portico, rising from the roof above the west end of the nave.
St George’s was opened in the new residential development of Hanover Square with no attached churchyard. Its first burial ground was sited beside its workhouse at Mount Street. When this filled up a larger burial ground was consecrated at Bayswater in 1765. They were closed for burials in 1854, when London’s city churchyards were closed to protect public health.
The Mount Street ground was later cleared of monuments and turned into a small park. Some of the old tombstones were used for guttering and drainage, and may be seen today. During the First World War the Bayswater ground was covered with 4 feet of top soil and used for growing vegetables. In 1969 the burial ground was cleared to enable land to be sold off for redevelopment. 11 500 remains were taken to West Norwood Cemetery and cremated for burial there.
Handel was a regular worshipper at St George’s, which is now one of the venues used by the annual London Handel Festival. St. George’s has a full-time professional choir and a strong choral tradition and is a venue for classical music concerts.
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