New Chaplain for the Chapel at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich
Isabel Keim
17 March 2009
A new Chaplain has been appointed to the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
The Reverend Jeremy Frost will be installed at a licensing service in the Chapel on Thursday 26th February 2009. He comes to Greenwich from Canterbury Cathedral where he served as Precentor and Liturgist, coordinating the worshiping life of the Cathedral. Prior to that he was a curate in the Diocese of Litchfield.
Reverend Frost read degrees in music and theology at University of Oxford, undertook further study at University College London and was a curate in the Diocese of Lichfield.
The Chapel has a strong musical life with a fine choir, regular performances by students and staff of Trinity College of Music and a variety of concerts take place throughout the year.
Reverend Frost said “I am looking forward to meeting the congregation of this beautiful Chapel and to working closely with my new colleagues in the Greenwich Foundation, and the staff and students of both the University of Greenwich and Trinity College of Music.”
The Chaplain joins the staff of the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College and is based within the Woolwich area of the Diocese of Southwark.
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Notes to editors:
1. The Old Royal Naval College began life as Greenwich Hospital, which was established in 1694 by Royal Charter for the relief and support of seamen and their dependants and for the improvement of navigation. Sir Christopher Wren planned the site, described as "one of the most sublime sights English architecture affords", and, during the first half of the eighteenth century, various illustrious architects, such as Hawksmoor and Vanbrugh, completed Wren's grand design.
In June 1705, the first Pensioners arrived and, by 1814, a total of 2,710 lived there. They lived on a diet of bread, beer and boiled meat and smoked their clay pipes or ‘chalks’ in the Chalk Walk, now the Skittle Alley. The Pensioners were given pocket money of 1s a week, which they supplemented by acting as caddies at Blackheath Golf Club and guides for visitors to Greenwich.
In 1869 the Hospital was closed, and in 1873 the complex of buildings became the Royal Naval College, where officers from all over the world came to train in the naval sciences. The Navy moved out in 1998 to merge with the RAF and Army at a new Joint Services Staff College in Shrivenham.
With the departure of the Royal Navy from Greenwich, responsibility for the Old Royal Naval College passed to the Greenwich Foundation. The Foundation is a registered charity established to look after, and interpret, the buildings and their grounds for the benefit of the nation.
2. The Old Royal Naval College Chapel: The Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul was designed for the congregation of sailors as the last major element in the Hospital’s construction and was completed to Thomas Ripley’s designs in 1752. The original Chapel interior was plainer in design and was typical of English baroque in relying for its effect on space and proportion rather than embellishment.
In 1779 Ripley’s Chapel was gutted by fire, thought to have been started by smoking in an adjacent tailors’ workshop. It was redesigned and rebuilt under the Surveyorship of James ‘Athenian’ Stuart, in the ‘Greek revival’ style for which he was famous – though detailing was done by his Clerk of Works, William Newton – and it re-opened in 1789.
Unlike many churches which are a mixture of styles through the ages, the Chapel is a complete and unaltered neoclassical period piece. The Chapel houses a 1789 Samuel Green organ and has a thriving choir. Its superb acoustics make it a regular venue for the public concerts and recitals which are open to all visitors. Public services of worship are held every Sunday at 11am.
For further information, photographs and interviews please contact
Isabel Keim, Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College on 020 8269 4763 - ikeim@greenwichfoundation.org.uk
