London England Temple

The London England Temple stands in Newchapel, Surrey, twenty-five miles south of London. It is a modern-contemporary temple with traditional Latter-day Saint design, built on a ten-acre site of formal gardens and a large pond. The building is four storeys tall, faced with white Portland stone and topped by a 50-metre copper-sheathed spire. A statue of the angel Moroni crowns the spire, added during the 2008 Jubilee Celebration. The temple grounds include a forty-room mansion called the Manor House and a visitors’ centre. The temple is the first built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United Kingdom. Its construction began in 1955 under church president David O. McKay, who dedicated the completed building in 1958. After thirty-two years, the temple closed in 1990 for major renovations led by Gordon B. Hinckley, who rededicated it in 1992. The Jubilee Celebration in 2008 added the Moroni statue and restored the Manor House and visitors’ centre. Inside, the temple has a celestial room decorated in French Second Empire style, with a painted sky ceiling and cream-coloured carpet. There are four endowment rooms, eight sealing rooms and a baptistry, arranged for ceremonial use. The grounds feature large oak trees claimed in 1958 to pre-date 1492, alongside flowerbeds and shrubbery. Visitors often walk the paths around the pond, enjoying the tranquil setting that enhances the sacred atmosphere.