King's Chapel is a small chapel in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It is located at the southern end of Main Street and adjoins the Governor of Gibraltar's residence, The Convent. What nowadays is King's Chapel was the first purpose-built church to be constructed in Gibraltar. Originally part of a Franciscan friary, the chapel was built in the 1530s but was given to the Church of England by the British after the capture of Gibraltar in 1704. It was badly damaged in the late 18th century during the Great Siege of Gibraltar and in the explosion of an ammunition ship in Gibraltar harbour in 1951, but was restored on both occasions. From 1844 to 1990 it served as the principal church of the British Army in Gibraltar; since then it has been used by all three services of the British Armed Forces.
History
After Castile captured Gibraltar from the Moors in 1462, friars from the Franciscan order established a presence in the city and constructed a friary and church there. Although two other churches already existed – the Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned and the Shrine of Our Lady of Europe – these had originally been established as mosques and had been converted into Christian churches by the Spanish. The Franciscans' church, next door to the friary, was thus the first wholly new church to be built in Gibraltar.
In 1704, a combined force from Great Britain and the Dutch Republic captured Gibraltar during the War of the Spanish Succession. The newly installed British Governor took over the friary, known as The Convent, as his official residence (for which purpose it is still used today). The Franciscan church was handed over to the Church of England and was renamed as "The King's Chapel". It was the only religious institution to remain open for services in Gibraltar following the conquest of the city. Francis Carter wrote in 1771: "The Church of the Convent is kept open for Divine Service, and the only one in the town, all other chapels and places of worship having been turned into storehouses to the great scandal of the Spanish and inconvenience of the Protestants." Baptisms were registered there from 1769, marriages from 1771 and burials from 1780, though a regular marriage register was not kept until 1794.
The chapel was badly affected by the Great Siege of Gibraltar (1779–83). Like many other brick or stone buildings in the city, it was pressed into military service to shelter troops and stores. The Spanish bombardment of Gibraltar caused widespread destruction, and the chapel was not spared; its western end and south transept were destroyed by enemy fire. They were rebuilt after the end of the siege but not in their original forms. The western end of the church and south transept were incorporated into the Governor's residence; the former became the Governor's ballroom and music room, while the transept became the site of the residence's main staircase. The present-day chapel consists of only the eastern half of the original church. The truncated nave originally stretched beyond where it now ends. Before the bombardment began the chapel also lost its belfry, which was pulled down in September 1779 to deny the Spanish gunners an aiming point. The event was recorded in one resident's diary for 19 September 1779: "The cupola of the White Convent was taken down, also the arch and upper part of the Governor's Church." The chapel's bell was not returned until as late as 1995.
The chapel appears to have been reopened for use in 1788, as recorded in a Garrison Order of that year. The Governor, his staff and other civilians worshipped there each Sunday, with a military band providing music to accompany the singing. The chapel was too small to accommodate the rest of the garrison, who held a Church Parade Service in the open air in what is now John Mackintosh Square. By the 1820s the chapel was too small to accommodate the growing civilian Anglican community of Gibraltar. Andrew Bigelow attended a service there in 1827, along with "the Governor and suite, and such of the fashionable gentry within the garrison, and officers not on duty who may feel disposed to attend". He described the building as "quite an ordinary accommodation" and commented:
It was superseded for general use by the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, which was completed in 1832, and became the Governor's private chapel for a short period. In 1833 an order was received from London for the closing of the King's Chapel, which was met with vigorous protests in Gibraltar. The congregation were told that they would have to pay a pew rent sufficient to maintain a military chaplain at a cost of five shillings a day. They were apparently unwilling to do so, and the chapel was duly closed.