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.
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.)
Listeners
Listening to
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| 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.