Parish Church, Kingston

London, United Kingdom

It is a measure of the importance of Kingston Parish Church in the history of the UK that in her Jubilee year, the Queen came here to unveil a stone commemorating the crowning of her predecessor Edward the Elder on this site 1100 years ago. Indeed, there are few churches with a more fascinating history: Egbert, King of Wessex, held his great council here in 838 and Athelstan and Ethelred the Unready were two more of the seven Saxon kings of England crowned here in the 10th century. Construction of the present church was begun in 1120 under the orders of Henry I, and almost every century since then some extension or addition has been made. The church boasts a 14th century wall‐painting of St. Blaise, the impressive 16th century tomb of Sir Anthony Benn, a 17th century marble font attributed to Sir Christopher Wren, twelve bells and an 18th century Carillon, the great west window of the 19th century, and the magnificent Frobenius organ installed in 1988.