Church House, Westminster

The Church House is the home of the headquarters of the Church of England, occupying the south end of Dean's Yard next to Westminster Abbey in London. Besides providing administrative offices for the Church Commissioners, the Archbishops' Council and the Church of England Pensions Board, and a chamber for the General Synod, the building also provided a meeting place for the Parliament of the United Kingdom during World War II, and for some of the organs of the newly formed United Nations afterward. It has more recently been the venue for several notable public enquiries.OriginsThe idea of a central meeting and administrative building for the Church of England had been raised twice in the mid 19th century and was finally acted upon in 1886 when The Rt Rev. Dr Harvey Goodwin, Bishop of Carlisle, suggested in a letter to The Times that the church should construct a "Church House" as a memorial of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Accordingly, a charity called the Corporation of the Church House was founded by Royal Charter on 23 February 1888, with the aim of raising the necessary funds and executing the project.