Old Royal Naval College - The Chapel
United Kingdom / London, England
Location ID: #10136041
The Chapel of St Peter and St Paul was the last major element in the Hospital's construction and was completed to Thomas Ripley's design in 1752. In 1779 this chapel was gutted in a disastrous fire and was redesigned and rebuilt under the Surveyorship of James "Athenian" Stuart, in the Greek revival style. The Chapel is a complete and unaltered neoclassical period piece. When it was fully restored in the 1950s, various later wall tablets were relocated to the vestry and it is now almost as it was when opened on 20 September 1789. The oak, mahogany and lime-wood pulpit is decorated with Coade-stone panels showing more incidents from the life of St Paul. The marble floor includes a ship's anchor lying north-south, and a rope design said to match exactly in size the anchor cable of a first rate ship of the line. The galleries are lined with grisaille paintings of the Apostles and Evangelists by Biaggio Rebecca, also from designs by West and covering niches which it was too expensive to fill with statues.
Location Category:
- LANDMARKS - General;
- PREMIERE LOCATIONS - *;
- RELIGIOUS - Chapels
Architecture Style:
- Neo-Classical;
- Period 1700-1800