Church in Tolmers Square, 1903

Kia ora and greetings from New Zealand,
I have accidentally come across this photo and can identify it for you. Reverend John Guthrie (b1814) was expelled (along with 4 others) from the United Presbyterian Church in 1843 and established the Evangelical Union or (EU) also known as the Morisonians after one of the founders, Rev J Morison. In 1861, he moved with his family from Glasgow to London to establish a new church in Tolmers Square
‘…built a fine stone church, with a spire, in Tolmers Square, Tottenham Court Road, and was so energetic in raising money for it, that it was entered debt free in 1862.’ (P.245)

Written by his daughter, Hannah Guthrie Hay (1901), Annandale Past and Present 1889-1900, Christchurch, New Zealand
https://natlib.govt.nz/records/20731011

Contributed by Celia Hay, August 2024.

I’ve recently discovered that the vicar of the church that had pretty well filled the whole of the centre of Tolmers Square was the Rev. Frederick Hastings, grandfather of the noted Hubert de Cronin Hastings, editor of the Architectural Review from 1927 to 1974. The Rev. Frederick seems to have been a Good Thing, speaking for agricultural franchise, sharing a platform with suffragettes, and still, in an interview not long before he died at the age of nearly 100 in 1936, worrying about Spain and the future of the League of Nations. H de C on the other hand shunned publicity, so – while researching him – I’m having to investigate the wider family.

Contributed by Judith Martin, email to Patrick Allen, 29/10/2025

• Media
  Photograph
• Collection
  Before