Henry Croswell et al. in St Stephen's Church, Gloucester Road, South Kensington, London - 21 August, 1881, 07:00 PM

from Transcript of the diaries of Henry Croswell, page 266:

O[rgan]. – Fine, large and well played.

H[ymns]. – Church Hymns and an Anthem - "I am Alpha and …"

C[hoir]. – Large, surpliced and beautiful singing - a treat.

[The congregation numbered] 200 – consisting of grooms, servants and a few others. […]

S[ermon]. – We didn't stop.

[…]

M[iscellaneous]. – It is a musical church. […] Being August the swells were "out of town".  It is a most aristocratic neighbourhood.

cite as

Henry Croswell, Transcript of the diaries of Henry Croswell. In British Library, number 000826807, C.194.c.113 , p. 266. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1551356065975 accessed: 11 October, 2024 (By permission of the British Library.)

location of experience: St Stephen's Church, Gloucester Road, South Kensington, London

Listeners

Henry Croswell
assurance clerk, Sunday School teacher
1840-1893

Listening to

hide composers
hymns selected from 'Church Hymns' performed by the choir and organist of St Stephen's Church Gloucester Road
Anglican church music performed by the choir and organist of St Stephen's Church Gloucester Road
'I am Alpha and [Omega]' performed by the choir and organist of St Stephen's Church Gloucester Road

Experience Information

Date/Time 21 August, 1881, 07:00 PM
Duration 45 minutes
Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Notes

Henry Croswell (1840–93) kept a record of his visits to churches in London over a period of more than twelve years (1872–85). He made methodical notes about the number of clergy, the churchmanship, the congregation, the sermon and the church architecture, as well as commenting on the music that he heard (the organ, the hymns and the choir). The above listening experience has been extracted from one of these records. This record is unnumbered in the transcript, but its position within the whole is no. 266. ‘Church Hymns’ (1871) and ‘Church Hymns with Tunes’ (1874) were publications of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (S.P.C.K.), under the musical editorship of Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900). This collection was the most successful of the competitors to ‘Hymns Ancient and Modern’ in the late nineteenth century, containing a larger number of hymns overall, and more hymns specifically intended for children and young people.


Originally submitted by lcc5 on Thu, 28 Feb 2019 12:14:26 +0000
Approved on Mon, 13 Jul 2020 14:32:25 +0100