Hermione Hobhouse, citing Sir John Summerson’s notes, attaches to Thomas Cubitt works on the chapel of Highgate School in 1818–1819. The surviving evidence is a specification of repairs and alterations to the chapel drawn up in 1818 by the architect and surveyor Samuel Ware, with tender returns for £4,497. A contemporary history of the school of 1822 makes no mention of the chapel works, and the Highgate School archivist has confirmed that the works to the chapel did not go ahead. The chapel was later demolished and replaced for the village by St Michael’s, Highgate, built in 1831–1832 by William and Lewis Cubitt. On this evidence the attribution to Thomas Cubitt of a reworking of the school chapel in 1818–1819 appears to be mistaken.
Contents
- Highgate School Chapel
- Samuel Ware
- Thomas Cubitt and Samuel Ware
- Records at Lambeth Palace Library
- Notes
Highgate School Chapel
Highgate School Chapel was a curious mix between a chapel of rest and a church. The school website states: “1819 – Our School is enlarged with aid from the National Society, a Church of England fund for religious education.” It is just possible that Thomas Cubitt had a hand in this work. The Mirror of 18 May 1833 published an article on the chapel and the new church that was built to replace it, with an engraving on the front cover.
Whether the Lambeth Palace Library archives hold any evidence of the aid from the National Society has yet to be established; the relevant references are listed below.
Samuel Ware
Samuel Ware, a well-known architect (there is a collection of his drawings at the Royal Academy), who had designed the Burlington Arcade and the remodelling of Burlington House in Piccadilly, was appointed by the governors to specify repairs and alterations to the chapel of Highgate School. This resulted in a specification of works, which survives in the school archives. Tender returns for the sum of £4,497 (page 28), with priced variation rates (page 29), appear to have been received.
Ware is described on the cover and title page as ‘Surveyor’ rather than architect. He also wrote A Treatise of the Properties of Arches, and their Abutment Piers, J. Taylor, London, 1809, and a treatise on fireproofing theatres. This may be coincidental, but Thomas Cubitt was well known for his fireproofing of buildings using brick-arched floors.
Ware trained under Henry Carr at 2 Albemarle Street (British History Online gives the reference as B[uilder?], 15 June 1867, p. 427; 3 March 1877, p. 217). According to the records of the Sun Fire Office, Ware appears to have lived at 5 John Street, Adelphi, between 1814 and 1829 (The London Archives, CLC/B/192/F/001/MS11936/465/895968). However, his address is given in A Treatise of the Properties of Arches, and their Abutment Piers (preface, page ix) as 15 John Street, Adelphi. From 1823 Ware also became something of a developer himself, with the Ware Estate in Chelsea.
Thomas Cubitt and Samuel Ware
According to Hermione Hobhouse (page 25), Sir John Summerson’s notes (Hobhouse’s endnote 11) contain a reference to Cubitt’s work on the Highgate School Chapel.1 However, Some Account of the Free Grammar School of Highgate, John Green, London, 1822, contains no mention of the chapel works of 1818–1819, so the possibility must be considered that the chapel works were never carried out.
According to the school archives,2 Ware’s chapel scheme was never implemented once it became clear that, as a private chapel, it could not claim funds under the Church Building Act of the time. Following the Act of Parliament of 1818 (An Act for the Building and the Promotion of Building Additional Churches in Populous Parishes), St Michael’s, Highgate was built by William and Lewis Cubitt. However, because of a defective interpretation of the 1818 Act, a further Act was required before St Michael’s could be consecrated.3 It would therefore appear that the story of Thomas Cubitt reworking the school chapel in 1818–1819 is erroneous.
Records at Lambeth Palace Library
Records held by Lambeth Palace Library relating to the chapel and school:
- FP Howley 5/70, 73
- FP Howley 21
- FP Howley 22
- FP Howley 23
- FP Blomfield 62, ff. 142–167, 189–205, 214–226, 229–230
- FP Blomfield 62, ff. 206–213
- NS/7/1
Notes
1 There is a reference dated January 1831: “perusing and settling contract with Mr Vulliamy, Highgate Chapel”. However, it does not explain why the 1818–1819 works to Highgate Chapel are attached to Cubitt on page 25. It remains a possibility that this is a misattribution.
2 Personal communication from the Highgate School archivist, 11 June 2024: “We know that the works did not go ahead to the Chapel. It was superseded by the court case which eventually led to the Chapel being demolished. St Michael’s was then created for the village in 1831-32 and in 1967 a new School Chapel was built. The only work that took place during this period was in relation to the school building.”
3 St Michael’s could not be consecrated because it did not meet the requirements of the Act under which it was built, as it was not situated within the diocese of London. The land on which it was built was from the parish of St Pancras, which was a peculiar under the jurisdiction of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral. A further Act of Parliament was passed to overcome this problem.