The Church of England in Victorian London c.1837–1856

Abstract

Recent constitutional changes had had a significant impact on the established Church’s self- identity and self-confidence. The recently appointed reforming bishops of London and Winchester, responsible for the metropolis, and leading laypeople set out to develop mission strategies to respond to this unprecedented situation in the face of London’s immense population growth and the confidence and challenge of Nonconformist churches. Anglicans adopted a strategy of subdividing densely populated historic parishes in poor districts and recruiting clergy to establish schools, gather congregations, and build churches as centres of spiritual, pastoral, and philanthropic care, with the associated need to secure voluntary funding and pastoral assistance, including women, for these initiatives. Contemporary evidence suggests that contemporary and subsequent criticisms of this strategy were overstated in claiming that the Church of England lost the allegiance of people in multiply deprived inner-urban parishes. Close examination discloses a more nuanced picture.