In Attendance: Paying Attention in a Fragile World review – visions of mortality abound

Fitzrovia Chapel, London
In a former hospital chapel replete with its own stories, works by Paula Rego, Phyllida Barlow and others resonate in their exquisitely contemplative surroundings

The Fitzrovia Chapel is a miniature cathedral in the heart of London – a tiny vault of marble, stained glass and gold conceived on the most human of scales. Old photographs show congregations of barely more than 50. It is possible to walk from one end to the other in fewer than a dozen steps, but along the way are glimmering mosaics, glowing stars and some of the most moving words I have ever read in a church.

This chapel, where King Charles recorded his recent Christmas message, is all that remains of the old Middlesex hospital in the heart of London. A neo-gothic building of dark red brick, it once nestled inside this venerable teaching hospital, founded in 1745. Now it stands alone, and fully visible, dwarfed instead by the high-rise apartments and luxury shops of the Pearson Square complex that replaced the Middlesex after it closed in 2005.