Church House, Westminster

Coordinates: 51°29′52″N 0°7′46″W / 51.49778°N 0.12944°W / 51.49778; -0.12944

Church House is the building that serves as the headquarters of the Church of England, occupying the south end of Dean's Yard next to Westminster Abbey in London.

The current building, designed by Sir Herbert Baker, is a 1930s replacement of the original building, commissioned in 1902 by the 1888-formed Corporation of the Church House to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee of 1887. Though delayed at first by the recession of the early 1930s, the foundation stone was laid by Queen Mary on 26 June 1937, and the building was officially opened by King George VI on 10 June 1940.

After the building's Assembly Hall was directly hit during the Blitz and yet suffered little damage, Winston Churchill requisitioned the building for use as makeshift Houses of Parliament. The first meetings of both the United Nations Security Council and United Nations Preparatory Commission took place in the Hoare Memorial Hall on 17 January 1946.

Today, the building is the headquarters of the Archbishops' Council, the Church Commissioners and all its Boards and Councils as well as of the Church of England Pensions Board and the National Society. It is the meeting-place, twice each year, of the General Synod of the Church of England.

The building was listed in 1988, and is currently used as a conference centre when the general synod is not in session.

External links

• The Corporation of the Church House
• The Church of England
• Church House's conference centre business