[2] The chapel sits on the site of the Savoy Palace, once owned by the prince John of Gaunt, that was destroyed in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

Work was begun on the chapel in 1502 under King Henry VII and it received its first charter to operate as a hospital foundation in 1512 to look after 100 poor and needy men of London.

[5] In 1755 Joseph Vernon married Jane Poitier here and the curate and vicar were transported for fourteen years for carrying out an unlicensed wedding.

[7] The Savoy Chapel was widely known during the incumbency of the Rev Hugh Chapman as a location where divorced persons were permitted to marry or to have their civil marriages blessed.

[8] Notable weddings included that of Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough, and Lt Col Jacques Balsan in 1921[9] and Edith Stuyvesant Vanderbilt and Senator Peter Goelet Gerry in 1925.

[10] Chapman's successor as Chaplain, the Rev Cyril Cresswell, immediately brought an end to the marriage of divorced persons in the chapel.

[17] The Chapel possesses a three-manual pipe organ, presented by Queen Elizabeth II, constructed to the specifications of the previous Master of the Music, William Cole and manufactured by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd.

The choir is rooted in the English cathedral tradition, and consists of up to 21 boy choristers (aged ten upwards) and six professional gentlemen.

The Savoy Chapel is mentioned in Evelyn Waugh's 1946 novel Brideshead Revisited where the venue for the marriage of Julia Flyte and Rex Mottram is discussed: "Oh, Charles, what a squalid wedding!

I wanted just to slip into a registry office one morning and get the thing over with a couple of char-women as witnesses, but nothing else would do but Rex had to have bridesmaids and orange blossom and the Wedding March.

"[23] In Episode 8 of Series 5 of Julian Fellowes' television period drama Downton Abbey, the Savoy Chapel is mentioned as the site of the blessing of the marriage of Lady Rose MacClare and The Hon.