Historic Anglican chapel beside The Convent on Gibraltar’s Main Street.
King’s Chapel is a small Church of England chapel in Gibraltar, at the southern end of Main Street beside the Governor’s residence, The Convent. Built in the 1530s as a Franciscan friary church, it later became Anglican and has served Gibraltar’s British Army and wider armed forces.
King’s Chapel is a small Church of England chapel in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. It stands at the southern end of Main Street, adjoining the Governor of Gibraltar’s official residence, The Convent. The building began in the 1530s as the church of a Franciscan friary and was the first church in Gibraltar constructed originally as a church, rather than converted from a mosque. After Gibraltar was captured in 1704 by combined British and Dutch forces during the War of the Spanish Succession, the friary was taken over as the Governor’s residence, while the Franciscan church was handed to the Church of England and renamed King’s Chapel. It remained in use for worship when other chapels and places of worship were converted into storehouses. Registers show baptisms from 1769, marriages from 1771 and burials from 1780. The chapel was badly damaged during the Great Siege of Gibraltar (1779–1783). Its western end and south transept were destroyed by Spanish bombardment, later rebuilt and incorporated into The Convent, leaving the present chapel as the eastern half of the original church. Damaged again in a 1951 ammunition ship explosion in Gibraltar harbour, it was restored. From 1844 to 1990 it served as the principal church of the British Army in Gibraltar, and subsequently has been used by all three British armed services.
