Where did it all start?

Like all Reformed Churches, Highgate United Reformed Church claims continuity with the Church catholic. The origins of religious dissent (Protestants who dissented from the Church of England) in Highgate probably go back to the Five Mile Act of 1665, which decreed that Ministers ejected from the Church of England had to live at least five miles from city, borough, or town boundaries. Highgate is (just!) five miles from Charing Cross. Highgate was also at the far reaches of the parishes of St Pancras and Hornsey, thus it was far enough away from the religious and political establishments to become a gathering place for religious dissenters and political parliamentarians. In 1672 a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, William Storer applied for, and was granted, a licence for a “Presbyterian Meeting” that had to be confined to “his owne house in the Towne of High Gate.”  The congregation would later become Independent (when the Presbyterians became Unitarian) and then Congregationalist. Much later a new Presbyterian Church was planted in Highgate (Cromwell Avenue) which, in 1967, united with the Congregationalists to form Union Church. The long and fascinating history of our congregation can be found in summary form in the second leaflet below, and more fully in Highgate Dissenters – their history since 1660 by John Thompson, £9 plus postage (to order a copy Email).

Our present building: the Pond Square Chapel

Built in 1859, it is now the only functioning nonconformist chapel of historic religious dissent (Presbyterian and Congregational) in Highgate. There are two antecedent buildings still standing in Highgate: one in Southwood Lane is now the Library for Highgate School; the other in Cromwell Avenue has been converted into domestic apartments.

Church guideA4

Who built it?

George Carter to the design of Thomas Roger Smith. The Minister who launched the appeal was Josiah Viney, also a local philanthropist. He had built, for example, twelve model houses for poorer people in Highgate, which are still standing today in North Road.

The downloadable guide and history are designed to be printed double-sided on A4 and folded into an A5 leaflet.

Church History

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