ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

All Saints Margaret Street - Restoration Appeal

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2009 will be the 150th anniversary of the consecration of All Saints. Our intention is to complete the restoration of this wonderful building in time for that celebration. All Saints is not just a great building, it is a living and working church. It stands open every day to serve not only its congregation but the thousands of people who come to this part of London for work, education, healthcare, shopping and recreation. Our forebears have given us this wonderful place. It is now our responsibility to care for it and continue the mission they began.

"It was here, in the 1850s, that the revolution in architecture began...It led the way,
All Saints Margaret Street, in church building."

Sir John Betjeman

Using this page as a staring point, you can find out all about the restoration appeal - what needs to be done, how much it will cost, and how you can help. You can also download the conservation management plan, and watch a film of Sir John Betjeman talking about the importance of Butterfield and All Saints (which includes some fine footage of the building). We have also asked a number of well known people to contribute their thoughts on what All Saints means to them.

What needs to be done

Read about what work needs to be done, and how much it will cost: click here

Download the Conservation Management Plan below: Conservation Plan (pdf)

"All Saints is England's most intriguing Victorian church. It has always excited mixed emotions, tucked away, black and austere in an anonymous Westminster side-street. Yet beneath the grime this stupendous building, erected in 1859 with expense no object, is William Butterfield's masterpiece. Its soaring gables and vaults, its polychrome stonework and internal crescendo to the altar, eagerly await salvation. Above all its colours, to which Butterfield attached both architectural and spiritual importance, lie hidden beneath the dirt of ages. Here is a burst of light lurking behind a wall of darkness. It cries out for release and revelation." Simon Jenkins

In 1970 Sir John Betjeman visited All Saints Margaret Street as part of a television programme he was making about Victorian Architecture for the BBC. Click here to view the film.

"All Saints Margaret Street is one of the glories of London. It is a marvellous building with a wonderful tradition of worship and music. My father was Musical Director of the church for several years and always spoke of his time there with enormous fondness."
Julian Lloyd Webber

"I first entered All Saints church Margaret Street when I was a teenager and each time I re-enter it, the feeling is recaptured. It is a statement of mystery. Two minutes from Oxford Circus you are drawn into mystery. None of us have 'solved' the mystery - but this place tugs us further in. For all the glories of its liturgical and preaching traditions, All Saints is seen (by me) at its best when empty or at one of the quiet Low Masses."
AN Wilson

"All Saints is not only a great architectural landmark, it is even more one to the heroic recovery of the Catholic tradition within the Church of England. No one who enters this church leaves unaffected by its spiritually charged atmosphere, one which arises from the constant exercise of prayer, penance and liturgy. This is one of those rare buildings in which the very walls speak. I owe it an incalculable debt in my own spiritual life for half-a-century." Sir Roy Strong

"The aura of every church is so different. What moves me, and what I search for, is a sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit. It’s not the architecture of All Saints Margaret Street that transcends, nor its art, nor its liturgy, nor its music (though all these are profoundly lovely, and unusually so, even in this great city) – it is the calm, still voice of the presence of God. It’s a privilege for those of us who have found the place, and pray there. I am blessed to be one of them." Tim Waterstone

"All Saints, Margaret Street, is architecturally one of the most remarkable Victorian churches in the capital. The architect was William Butterfield, who managed on the small and difficult site to produce a soaring and magnificent house of God to serve the traditions of his High Anglicanism. It is celebrated for its fine music and the dignity and beauty of its services, but above all it is a church of prayer and silence. Even when the church is empty, to enter its incense-scented interior is to feel the cares and preoccupations of daily living fall away in the contemplation of the beauty of holiness. It was partly because of the unique atmosphere which the church holds for me, and my great joy in trying to describe it, that I used the church for a significant meeting place in my novel The Murder Room." P D James

We welcome you to visit All Saints Margaret Street yourself to experience this unique and important place of worship.

Support the restoration work

To make an online donation using a credit or debit card, please click here