The Queen's Chapel is a Christian chapel in central London, England that was designed by Inigo Jones and built between 1623 and 1625 as an adjunct to St. James's Palace. It is one of the facilities of the British monarch's personal religious establishment, the Chapel Royal, and should not be confused with the room known as the Chapel Royal in the main part of the palace, which is just across the road.
It was built as a Roman Catholic chapel at a time when the construction of Catholic churches was prohibited in England, and was used by Charles I's Catholic queen Henrietta Maria. From the 1690s it was used by Continental Protestant courtiers. It was built as an integral part of St James's Palace, but when the adjacent private apartments burned down in 1809 they were not replaced and in 1856-57 Marlborough Road was built between the palace and the Queen's Chapel. The result is that physically the chapel now appears to be more part of the Marlborough House complex than of St James's Palace. It became a Chapel Royal again in 1938.
The Queen's Chapel was where, for several days, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's body was placed during the preparations for her lying-in-state in Westminster Hall.
Famous quotes containing the words queen and/or chapel:
“I do not so much rejoice that God hath made me to be a Queen, as to be a Queen over so thankful a people.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“The religion of England is part of good-breeding. When you see on the continent the well-dressed Englishman come into his ambassador’s chapel and put his face for silent prayer into his smooth-brushed hat, you cannot help feeling how much national pride prays with him, and the religion of a gentleman.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)