Fitzrovia Chapel
A tiny former hospital chapel hidden in a Fitzrovia courtyard, free to visit, with a breathtaking ceiling of glittering gold mosaic like a slice of Venice off Oxford Street.
The lowdown
From the outside it is easy to walk straight past, a small plain building tucked in a courtyard behind Oxford Street. Step inside the Fitzrovia Chapel and you get one of the great free gasps in London, a ceiling encrusted with thousands of gold mosaic tiles that glows like the inside of a jewellery box.
It was built from 1891 as the chapel of the Middlesex Hospital, designed by the gothic revivalist John Loughborough Pearson, and the shimmering mosaic ceiling was added by his son Frank in the late 1920s. When the hospital was demolished the chapel was saved and beautifully restored, and now sits marooned in a modern development, never consecrated and open to all.
It is free to visit on its open days, with a donation box if you want to give. Allow yourself fifteen quiet minutes to sit and look up, because the longer you stare the more detail the gold gives back.
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