The purpose of the commission was to honour the eighteenth-century abolitionist Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, who was enslaved as a teenager, brought to London in 1772, and sought baptism at St James’s when he was c.15 years old in 1773. The artwork is part of an ongoing series of activities which seek social justice and liberation in relation to anti-racism, legacies and enslavement, and contested heritage. The project was also accompanied by a new memorial designed by Cardozo Kindersley and placed near the font where Cugoano was baptised. Its inscription includes the title of Cugoano’s prophetic and powerful 1787 book. Lovelace’s project and its deep connections with racial justice has also inspired ongoing visual arts projects including a series of temporary exhibitions 3-4 times per year in the side chapel at St James’s. In 2026, these will be funded by a grant from the Church of England’s Racial Justice Unit.

Che Lovelace paints the intersecting lives of the people, flora and fauna of his native Trinidad. Infused with rich colours and bold shapes, his art straddles the boundary between magical realism, abstraction and the beauty of the natural world. The paintings, The River, Passage, Spirit and The Vision of the Birds (right to left above) have been installed in St James’s entrance where all visitors to the church can see them.

Quobna Ottobah Cugoano described his personal experience of being trafficked at the age of 13 to work on a plantation in Grenada and bought by a merchant to England where he gained his freedom in 1772, in his book Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery published in 1787. His baptism, in 1773, was an act which promised his ongoing freedom; however he didn’t live long enough to see slavery abolished by the UK Parliament. With his exact dates of birth and death unknown, Cugoano’s baptism on 20 August 1773 at St James’s is the only place and date that is clearly and verifiably part of his story.

Lovelace was selected by a process led by curator Ekow Eshun and involving members of the church’s congregation and clergy. The commission is supported by generous donations from international lawyer and philanthropist Dr Tai-Heng Cheng and his husband, gallerist Mr Cole Harrell, both American Friends of St James’s Piccadilly. The commission is part of St James’s cultural programme overseen by Creative Director Richard Parry, previously Director, Glasgow International.

Che Lovelace, born in Port of Spain, Trinidad in 1969, joins St James’s history of connection with artists and creatives. Considered amongst Sir Christopher Wren’s finest churches, and housing a remarkable reredos carved by Grinling Gibbons, St James’s is the place where Angelica Kauffman, one of the founders of the Royal Academy, was married in 1767. Caricaturist James Gillray (1756-1815) and portraitist Mary Beale (1633-1699) were buried in the courtyard. William Blake (1757-1827) was baptised in the Grinling Gibbons font and Mary Delany (1700-1788), an artist who created intricate ‘paper mosaiks’ of botanical specimens, has a memorial (although sadly only recognising her as a daughter and wife and not for her creativity).

Cugoano - St James's Church Piccadilly

Che Lovelace | Nicola Vassell

Photography by St James’ Piccadilly