St Anne's Church, Kew

St Anne's Church, Kew, is a parish church in Kew in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The building, which dates from 1714 and is Grade II* listed, forms the central focus of Kew Green. The raised churchyard, which is on three sides of the church, has two Grade II* listed monuments – the tombs of the artists Johan Zoffany (d. 1816) and Thomas Gainsborough (d. 1788). The French Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), who stayed in 1892 at 10 Kew Green, portrayed St Anne's in his painting Church at Kew (1892).

Services
On Sundays the church holds a traditional Said Eucharist, a Sung Eucharist and (on the first Sunday of the month) Choral Evensong.

Music
St Anne's Church houses a 19th-century pipe organ and is a venue for concerts, including those of the local orchestra, Kew Sinfonia.

History
Founded in 1714 as a chapel within the parish of Kingston on land given by Queen Anne St Anne's Church has been extended several times since, as the settlement of Kew grew with royal patronage. In 1770, King George III undertook to pay for the first extension, designed by Joshua Kirby who, four years later, was buried in the churchyard. The church became a parish church in its own right in 1788. In 1805, a new south aisle, designed by Robert Browne, was added, along with a gallery for the royal family's own use. Under King William IV it was further extended in 1837 by Sir Jeffry Wyattville. A mausoleum designed by the architect Benjamin Ferrey was added in 1851 and an eastern extension, including a dome in 1882/84, to the design of Henry Stock. Further extensions occurred in 1902, 1979 and 1988. The interior of the roof was repainted in 2013. To mark the church's tercentenary in 2014, a new baptismal font was installed.

St Anne's present parish hall, which is at right angles to the church and incorporates the previous choir vestry, was built in 1978. Its design echoes the materials and forms of the church building.

A collection of funerary hatchments honouring deceased royal or noble parishioners is on display in front of the church gallery, flanking a rare representation of Queen Anne's coat of arms. A hatchment commemorating George III's son, Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover, was hung in the church in 1821 and is now in the collection of the Museum of Richmond. Inside the church are fine memorials, including ones to the family of Sir William Jackson Hooker.

Just outside the church walls on its south side, is the Kew War Memorial, in the form of a large stone cross, commemorating the local soldiers who fell in the First and Second World Wars. Their names are listed not on the memorial but inside the church on a monument by William Sharpington.

Since 2022, Canon Giles Fraser serves as Vicar of St Anne's, Kew, where Anthony Saxton (1934–2015) was formerly churchwarden.

Baptisms

 * Francis Perceval Eliot later Count Eliot, soldier, auditor and man of letters, 9 October 1755.

Marriages

 * Francis, Duke of Teck married Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, 12 June 1866. Their daughter, "May", married George V and was known as Queen Mary.

Burials

 * William Aiton (d. 1793), first Keeper of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
 * William Townsend Aiton (d. 1849) son of above, English botanist, royal gardener
 * Franz Bauer (d. 1840), the Austrian microscopist and botanical artist, whose epitaph also pays tribute to his brother the botanical illustrator Ferdinand Bauer (d. 1826): "In the delineation of plants he [Franz] united the accuracy of a profound naturalist with the skill of the accomplished artist, to a degree which has been only equalled by his brother Ferdinand"
 * Professor John Patrick Micklethwait Brenan (d. 1985), British botanist, and director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
 * George Engleheart (d. 1829), painter of portrait miniatures to the Court of King George III
 * Thomas Gainsborough (d. 1788), English portrait and landscape painter
 * Rev. Thomas Haverfield (d. 1866), chaplain to Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex
 * Sir William Hooker (d. 1865), director of the Royal Gardens at Kew, and his son, English botanist and explorer Sir Joseph Hooker (d. 1911)
 * Joshua Kirby (d. 1774), 18th-century painter known for his work on linear perspective
 * Sir Richard Levett (d. 1711), Lord Mayor of London, who owned Kew Palace, and members of his family including his grandson, Rev Abraham Blackburne (d. 1797) and his wife Frances née Fanshawe and Lincoln's Inn barrister Levett Blackburne (d. 1781), who sold Kew Palace to the royal family
 * Jeremiah Meyer (d. 1789), English miniature painter
 * John Smith (d. 1888), botanist and the first curator of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
 * Johan Zoffany (d. 1810), German neoclassical painter active in England.

Formerly buried at St Anne's

 * Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge and his wife Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel were buried at the east end of St Anne's Church in 1850 and 1889 respectively, but in 1930 their remains were exhumed and removed to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.