The answer may depend on the faiths one includes, and the period of time chosen. There are 61 places of worship in Kensington with a surprising concentration of diverse faiths around St James’s Gardens, in the heart of Notting Dale.
A synagogue, a mosque, a Sikh gurdwara, a Roman Catholic church, an Anglican church are all within a quarter of a mile of each other in this Norland area of Kensington.
St Francis of Assisi in Pottery Lane, is a church where young Catholics from 27 schools go for their first communion. It was one of the centres where Muslims and Christians gathered to mourn for the victims of Grenfell tower.
Pottery Lane took its name from the brickfields at its northern end, where Avondale Park now lies. High-quality clay was dug there from about 1818 and fired in a large kiln. A restored red brick 'bottle kiln' facing the park is still there.
In the mid-1800s Pottery Lane was the main route into one of London's worst slums and known as "Cut-throat Lane”. Pig-keepers forced from Tottenham Court Road and Marble Arch also moved in.
The 1845 Irish potato rot forced emigration and many left their land for Notting Hill and Notting Dale. There was no Roman Catholic church, so in 1859 Henry Augustus Rawes, looked for a site on which to build a church for the “poor and populous district of Notting Dale”.
Rawes considered two sites for the church, and chose Pottery Lane rather than one near St. John's Church on Ladbroke Grove, because the rich could always come down the hill to church, but the poor would almost certainly not go up it.
John Francis Bentley the architect of Westminster Cathedral, designed the church.
The interior decoration of delicate luminous paintings was designed so that the decorative details did not “overwhelm the eye or distract the mind”.
Bentley commissioned the Belgian sculptor Theodore Phyffers for the statue of Our Lady here at St. Francis. The artist N.H.J. Westlake painted on slate the Seven Dolours of Mary that line the walls of the Lady Chapel, and the seven stations of the cross in the main church.
The Lady Chapel also contains the altar of St. John the Evangelist with a stone carving by the Earl of Lambeth.
The font itself is of red granite, the supporting columns and plinth are alabaster and green and red marble, with terracotta and cream tiles of the platform complimenting the rest of the floor. Hanging from four chains over the font is an octagonal turret-shaped cover. It was made in 1865 from oak, with angels painted in black gracing each on the eight panels and It was a personal gift to the church from John Bentley.
After his death Bentley’s son Osmond assumed responsibility for the continued decoration and upkeep of the church, which has been re-decorated at regular intervals over the years.
Three years later an adjoining plot of land was acquired to erect the presbytery and the school and in 1983 the church was restored to its original simplicity.
It provided a sanctuary and oasis in an area which was called the Notting Dale Avernus or Mouth of Hell. In the early Victorian era when the inhabitants were mainly beggars, cab-runners, loafers, thieves and prostitutes. At one time there were 3000 pigs living in the area and just 1000 people.
But pigs gradually disappeared, and waves of building improved the housing. With limited local authority support, the churches and public schools provided the best practical and moral assistance. Harrow and Rugby schools both established missions to help the poor, and their legacy continues to this day.
Mr Varley, a Baptist businessman, built a Baptist hall with twin spires on either side of his main doors. It stood in Penzance Place on the northeast corner of St James's gardens in the 1860s so he could preach to the people of the neighbouring potteries.
Later the building became an industrial warehouse, but in the last twenty years it has reverted to a religious use and is an Iranian Shia Mosque. In 1974 the late Grand Ayatollah of Iran, Golpiegani, helped establish the Islamic Universal Association in London and the mosque became its headquarters. This mosque marks Muharram and the Day of Ashura with a march down Holland Park from Hyde Park to commemorate the death of Husayn ibn 'All and his family.
The chief mourner in 2019 march was the grandson of the Grand Ayatollah Golpiegani.
In the late 1840s, the Norland Estate gave Charles Richardson, a property developer, permission to build the St James's Gardens houses. He provided private communal gardens and donated the site for St James's Church to the Church Commissioners. Lewis Vulliamy designed St James in 12thC Gothic style, and it cost just under £5,000 to build (£600,000 today). The church was consecrated in 1845.
St James's church has an impressive organ, a strong musical tradition and is used for concerts. It was the place where a children's opera was founded in 1971 by local Holland Park parents led by Serena Hughes a music teacher, and the conductor Nicholas Kraemer. They wanted to stage an opera for young people each December with a large cast of children and young people. One of their first was Benjamin Britten's Noyes Fludde, and they commissioned new works. Although rehearsals still take place at St James' Norland Church, since 2003 the main performances have been in a professional venue.
The largest congregation using St James's is no longer residents of the gardens. It is a Pentecostal movement, founded by Pastor Wayman Mitchell in the small town of Prescott, Arizona in the 1970s, called the Potters House Christian Fellowship which exists in 112 nations. It is a fellowship or movement rather than a denomination and known for its music and song. The congregation is led by Pastor Yomi Kuty, originally from Nigeria and his wife from Sierra Leone.
The elegant home of the Sephardic Jewish community in West London is the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue.
Sephardic Jews from Saloninka, Istanbul and parts of the declining Ottoman Empire travelled to London to build a better life for themselves and their families in the early 1900s. By the beginning of World War 1, about 700 families had settled in the Shepherds Bush area and in 1928 they built the synagogue in the south west corner of St James’s Gardens.
The stained glass windows above the gallery flood light onto the raised central dais occupied by the rabbi and the honorary officers of the synagogue. They face the embrasure holding the copies of the torah, and during the Saturday service wear Edwardian style top hats. On the wooden pews around the dais are prayer books with prayers in Hebrew, English and Ladino, which is an old form of Spanish, spoken only by the older members of the community.
The expulsion of Jewish families from Spain in 1492 scattered Sephardic Jews across the south and east of the Mediterranean, and they retained their language. Many of the worshippers at the synagogue have more recent ties to Libya, Egypt and Iran, and some of the younger generation cannot read Hebrew.
Former members of the Sephardic community are commemorated on the Etzchayim, the Tree of Life on the wall of the synagogue. Every year on the anniversary of their death the candle on a brass plaque engraved with their name lights up. A stone on the wall of the synagogue names the members of this Sephardic community who died in the Second World War fighting for the United Kingdom. In contrast, beside the book recording the deaths of members of the community, are rows of baby buggies waiting for the children at the nursery school held in the synagogue hall.
In front of the memorial stone is the security guard who is on duty whenever the synagogue and buildings are in use. That this place of worship needs security guards in the 21stC, is a disturbing echo of the plight of the Sephardic community in Salonika in the 15thC. His presence was prompted by the terrorist attacks in France, although neither Leon Sassoon, president of the synagogue, nor rabbi Lavi have had any reports of anti-Semitism in this area. On one occasion a man came into the synagogue, went down on his knees, touching his forehead to the floor. When the then rabbi’s son asked him what he thought he was doing, the man replied “I am here to teach you infidels how to pray”. He was gently escorted to the door and left peaceably.
In the spirit of Fr Rawes and Mr Varley, the Salvation Army established a mission – citadel – in the neighbourhood, at Norland Castle on Queensdale Road.
In 1940 the building was destroyed in a bombing raid during the Blitz, but rebuilt twenty years later. Now it is the home of a Sikh gurdwara.
The Khalsa Jatha, British Isles, was formed in 1908 to promote religious and social activities among the Sikhs. Sikhism is a monotheistic religion, founded by Guru Nanak Dev (1469-1539) as a movement of tolerance in India. Great Britain has close to 500,000 Sikhs - the largest number outside India.
In 1911 the Jatha acquired a house in Putney, and two years later the movement bought the lease of 79 Sinclair Road, Shepherd Bush, where it remained for 63 years. As funds were raised, the Jatha bought old site of the Norland Castle – once a Salvation Army citadel until it was bombed during the Second World War.
In 1969 the Sikhs moved into the building where the Gurdwara (meaning the house of Guru) still stands. The domes were added in the early 1990's while a further programme of refurbishment began in 2000.
Each gurdwara has a Darbar Sahib where the scripture Guru Granth Sahib, is placed on a takhat (an elevated throne) in a prominent central position. The raagis (who sing ragas) recite, sing and explain, the verses from the Guru Granth Sahib, in the congregation's presence. People from all faiths, and those who do not profess any faith, are welcomed in Sikh gurdwaras.
The Sikh principles of equality and community service, are epitomised by the tradition of the Langar, a community kitchen where vegetarian food is cooked and served by volunteers from the community providing free meals to all.
A short walk around Notting Dale is a reminder of the shared values amidst this diversity of faiths, the rich histories of all the different communities that have come together, and together they are a source of inspiration, learning and hope. To book see: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/notting-dale-hidden-stories-3367119?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=creatorshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=odclsxcollection&utm-source=cp&aff=escb
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