St George's, Hanover Square, is an Anglican

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 church in central London

Central London

Central London is the innermost part of London, England. There is no official or commonly accepted definition of its area, but its characteristics are understood to include a high density built environment, high land values, an elevated daytime population and a concentration of regionally,...

, built in the early 18th century. The church was designed by John James and was constructed under a project to build fifty new churches around London (the Queen Anne Churches). It is situated on Hanover Square

Hanover Square, London

Hanover Square, London, is a square in Mayfair, London W1, England, situated to the south west of Oxford Circus, the major junction where Oxford Street meets Regent Street....

, near Oxford Circus

Oxford Circus

Oxford Circus is the area of London at the busy intersection of Regent Street and Oxford Street, in the West End. It is served by Oxford Circus tube station, which is directly beneath the junction itself.- History :...

, in what is now the City of Westminster

City of Westminster

The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...

. Due to its Mayfair

Mayfair

Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...

 location, it has been a frequent venue of high society

High society (group)

High society refers to a category of people deemed to have greater social status or prestige, and their related affiliations, social events and practices which together define a group variously referred to as "Society" or high society. Such groups are defined by certain key events and cultural...

 weddings.

Ecclesiastical parish

A civil parish of St George Hanover Square

St George Hanover Square

St George's, Hanover Square, is an Anglican church in central London, built in the early 18th century. The church was designed by John James and was constructed under a project to build fifty new churches around London . It is situated on Hanover Square, near Oxford Circus, in what is now...

, and an ecclesiastical parish, were created in 1724 from part of the ancient parish of St Martin in the Fields

St Martin in the Fields (parish)

St Martin in the Fields was a civil parish in the metropolitan area of London, England. It took its name from the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields and was within the Liberty of Westminster. It included within its boundaries Buckingham Palace and St...

. The boundaries of the ecclesiastical parish were adjusted in 1830, 1835 and 1865 when other parishes were calved out of it. The ecclesiastical parish still exists today and forms part of the Deanery of Westminster St Margaret in the Diocese of London

Diocese of London

The Anglican Diocese of London forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England.Historically the diocese covered a large area north of the Thames and bordered the dioceses of Norwich and Lincoln to the north and west. The present diocese covers and 17 London boroughs, covering most of Greater...

.

Weddings

The church was a fashionable place of worship to have weddings. It was here that Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

, the future US President, aged 28, married Edith Carow, aged 25, on 2 December 1886. Henry Holland (architect)

Henry Holland (architect)

Henry Holland was an architect to the English nobility. Born in Fulham, London, his father also Henry ran a building firm and he built several of Capability Brown's buildings, although Henry would have learnt a lot from his father about the practicalities of construction it was under Brown that he...

 married Capability Brown

Capability Brown

Lancelot Brown , more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English landscape architect. He is remembered as "the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due", and "England's greatest gardener". He designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure...

's daughter Bridget on the 11th February 1773 in the church. John Nash (architect)

John Nash (architect)

John Nash was a British architect responsible for much of the layout of Regency London.-Biography:Born in Lambeth, London, the son of a Welsh millwright, Nash trained with the architect Sir Robert Taylor. He established his own practice in 1777, but his career was initially unsuccessful and...

 married Mary Ann Bradley on the 17th December 1798 in the church.One famous London marriage involved the architect John Shaw Senior (1776–1832) to Elizabeth Hester Whitfield in 1799. Other notable people married there include the Eccentric Missionary, Joseph Wolff

Joseph Wolff

Joseph Wolff , Jewish Christian missionary, was born at Weilersbach, near Bamberg, Germany. He travelled widely, and was known as the Eccentric Missionary, according to Fitzroy Maclean's Eastern Approaches...

, in 1827. 2 February 1858 saw the marriage of Ann Jeffrey and Samuel Parkes

Samuel Parkes (VC)

Samuel Parkes VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces...

 who won the Victoria Cross

Victoria Cross

The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....

 in the Charge of the Light Brigade

Charge of the Light Brigade

The Charge of the Light Brigade was a charge of British cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War. The charge was the result of a miscommunication in such a way that the brigade attempted a much more difficult objective...

 for saving the life of Trumpeter Hugh Crawford. In October 1899, Alfreda Ernestina Albertina Bowen, daughter of Sir George Ferguson Bowen and Contessa Diamantina di Roma

Diamantina Bowen

Lady Diamantina Bowen was a Greek noble who became the wife of Sir George Ferguson Bowen, the first governor of Queensland.-Personal life:...

, married Robert Lydston Newman.

In popular culture

In the movie My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady (film)

My Fair Lady is a 1964 musical film adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe stage musical, of the same name, based on the 1938 film adaptation of the original stage play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. The ballroom scene and the ending were taken from the previous film adaptation , rather than from...

, Eliza's father (played by Stanley Holloway

Stanley Holloway

Stanley Augustus Holloway, OBE was an English stage and film actor, comedian, singer, poet and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady...

), having just been provided with an inheritance and having to move into "middle-class morality", invites her (Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...

) to his wedding at this church. Following the invitation, he and his fellows sing "Get Me To The Church On Time".

Music

George Frederick Handel was a regular worshipper at St George's, which is now home to the annual Handel Festival. St. George's has a full time professional choir and a strong choral tradition and is an outstanding venue for classical music concerts. A Restoration Fund Appeal was launched on Trinity Sunday

Trinity Sunday

Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Western Christian liturgical calendar, and the Sunday of Pentecost in Eastern Christianity...

 2006 to raise a total of five million pounds, with a target of one and a half million pounds needed for the first phase of essential restoration work to the fabric of the church. A recent concert series in support of the Restoration Fund was supported by the William Smith International Performance Programme and featured solo piano performances by students from the Royal College of Music

Royal College of Music

The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...

, including Ren Yuan, Ina Charuashvili, Meng Yan Pan and the London debut of Maria Nemtsova of Russia.

External links

• http://www.stgeorgeshanoversquare.org/
• Deanery of Westminster (St Margaret)
• Mystery Worshipper Report at the Ship of Fools website
  Ship of Fools (website)
  Ship of Fools is a UK-based Christian website. It was first launched as a magazine in 1977. The magazine folded in 1983 and was resurrected as a website on April Fool's Day, 1998. Subtitled "the magazine of Christian unrest", Ship of Fools pokes fun and asks critical questions about the Christian...