St. Peter's Church, Eaton Square

St. Peter's Church, Eaton Square
Southwest front of St Peter's
Location	Eaton Square, Belgravia, London SW1
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Anglo-Catholic
Website	St Peter's Eaton Square
History
Dedication	Paul the Apostle
Events	1837 rebuilt after a fire 1987 gutted by fire again 1991 rebuilt again
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II* listed
Designated	24 February 1958
Architect(s)	Henry Hakewill (1824 design) Arthur Blomfield (1875 chancel and transepts) Braithwaite Partnership (1991 rebuilding)
Style	Neoclassical
Completed	1827, 1837, 1991
Administration
Diocese	London
Province	Canterbury
Clergy
Vicar(s)	Ralph Williamson
Assistant	Julie Khovacs

St. Peter's Church, Eaton Square is a Church of England parish church at the east end of Eaton Square, Belgravia, London. It is a neoclassical building designed by the architect Henry Hakewill with a hexastyle portico with Ionic columns and a clock tower. On 19 October 1991 The Times newspaper wrote "St Peter’s must now rank as one of the most beautiful churches in London". It is a Grade II* listed building.

St Peter's was built between 1824 and 1827 during the first development of Eaton Square. The interior was, as was common at the time, a "preaching box", with galleries in three sides and the organ and choir at the west end. James Elmes called the effect "chaste and simple".

This building burnt down, and in 1837 was rebuilt from Hakewill's drawings by one of his sons. The original building was a Commissioners' church, receiving a grant from the Church Building Commission towards its cost. The full cost of the building was £22,427 (equivalent to £1,750,000 in 2015), towards which the Commission paid £5,556.

In 1875, the church was enlarged and reordered to designs by Sir Arthur Blomfield, who added a chancel at the east end and north and south transepts and "fiercely normanized" the interior. Internally Blomfield's chancel and transepts are Romanesque Revival, but externally they conform with Hakewill's neoclassical style.

From its founding St Peter's, Eaton Square, Pimlico and until at least 1878 was usually recorded as St Peter's, Pimlico. In 1953 the crypt containing some 400 burials was cleared and the remains reinterred at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey.

On 20 October 1987 an anti-Catholic arsonist set fire to the east end, in the mistaken belief that the building was a Roman Catholic chapel. Within hours the church was engulfed. By the next day the fire was out but only the Georgian shell of the building remained. It was roofless, with most of its furnishings destroyed.