venue spotlight

Union Chapel in late summer: Roger Eno, John Scofield and Devin Townsend in a room built to be heard

A quiet piano-led evening, a jazz quartet and a solo heavy-music figure arrive at Islington’s working Grade I listed chapel, where the room remains an active part of every show.

Published 2026-08-10 · CrowdMate editorial checks passed

Union Chapel’s late-summer run places three distinctly scaled musical propositions inside the same imposing room: John Scofield’s Long Days Quartet on Thursday 20 August, Devin Townsend’s Metamorphosis solo show on Sunday 6 September, and Roger Eno on Wednesday 9 September 2026. The shared address is Union Chapel, 19b Compton Terrace, Islington: a Grade I listed Gothic chapel that remains a working church, alongside its life as a concert hall and community site. The appeal lies in the fixed architecture. Audience members sit in pews; performers work beneath a high Victorian interior designed around sightlines and audibility. These dates offer a useful way to hear the building through jazz interplay, piano-led composition and a solo performance drawn from a long, genre-crossing catalogue.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

A chapel planned around attention

The present chapel was dedicated in December 1877. Its architect, James Cubitt, shaped a central octagonal space within a rectangle, with a dome overhead and a gallery rising around it. Historic England identifies Cubitt’s congregational planning as an approach centred on maximum visibility and audibility. Inside, the ground-floor pews climb towards the rear, the side gangways preserve views past the pillars, and the pulpit anchors the room. This was practical architecture for listening before it became concert architecture. Union Chapel’s own history records the original brief: every person should be able to see or hear the preacher without strain. The same discipline remains audible when an audience settles into the wooden seating.^[1][2]

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Roger Eno and the close detail of the room

Roger Eno’s 9 September date brings material from his Deutsche Grammophon trilogy, including 2025’s Without Wind, Without Air. The venue describes that record as spanning solo piano pieces plus orchestrated work for combinations of clarinet, guitar, bass, strings, synths, percussion and electronics; for this show, Eno is joined by Cecily on vocals and Alexander Glückmann on reeds. His official biography describes a practice rooted in early-morning piano improvisation, then reduction: stripping material back until its essential shape emerges. In Union Chapel, that approach meets a room whose design was founded on clear human sound. The attention moves easily from a piano phrase to the vocal and reed detail around it.^[1][4]

Scofield’s quartet in the pews

On 20 August, guitarist John Scofield leads the Long Days Quartet with keyboardist John Medeski, bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Ted Poor. Scofield’s official tour page confirms the London date and lineup; Union Chapel’s listing says the group was assembled to introduce recent groove compositions and revisit Scofield material through contemporary perspectives. Four players change the room’s scale. Where Eno’s programme foregrounds individual textures, this is a band built around conversation: guitar and keyboards sharing harmonic space, bass and drums keeping the movement clear. The chapel’s seated layout fixes the audience’s attention forward, giving the quartet an unusually concentrated setting for music that depends on close listening across the bandstand.^[1][5]

Townsend solo, then the practicalities

Devin Townsend arrives on 6 September with Metamorphosis – Solo. Union Chapel presents the date as part of his return to live performance, drawing from a career that crosses his solo work and projects including Punky Brüster, Casualties of Cool, Devin Townsend Project and Strapping Young Lad. A solo billing places the performer’s voice, guitar and framing between the chapel’s brick, wood and long acoustic decay; it also makes the contrast with Scofield’s four-way exchange especially sharp. All three events use seating only, with unreserved seats taken on arrival. Scofield and Eno list 7pm doors, while Townsend lists 6.30pm; each has a 10.30pm curfew. Union Chapel is at 19b Compton Terrace, London N1 2UN. Lineups, access arrangements, doors and ticket availability can shift, so recheck the official event pages before travelling.^[3][4][5][6]

Also this week

• Devin Townsend – Metamorphosis – SoloUnion Chapel · 2026-09-06

Sources

1. From 1799 to Today — Union Chapel
2. Union Chapel, Non Civil Parish - 1208365 — Historic England
3. Union Chapel, London: Tickets, Opening Hours and Visitor Info — Time Out
4. ROGER ENO — Union Chapel
5. John Scofield's Long Days Quartet — Union Chapel
6. Devin Townsend – Metamorphosis – Solo — Union Chapel