Turner celebrated at Farm Street Church

l-r: Will Palin, Tim Wright, artist Adam Dant, Janine Saba, from the Mayfairer, Myra Hughes, Porterhouse owner and Fr Dominic Robinson SJ

An historic Jesuit church was the setting for a celebration of one of Britain's most unique artists this week.

Joseph Mallory William Turner's 250th birthday was celebrated on April 23 - St George's Day - at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Farm Street.

The special event was hosted by The Mayfarer, The Covent Gardener, and The Porterhouse Bar, the location of Turner's birth in Maiden Lane in 1775.

His legacy was explored in an animated conversation between Adam Dant, a map artist commissioned to create a new 10ft by 10ft map celebrating Turner's birthplace, and contemporary artist Tim Wright and compered by Will Palin, CEO of Barts Heritage and son of globetrotting diarist Michael Palin.

Turner inhabited a London poised between Enlightenment ambition and religious renewal and knew every corner of the city and River Thames running through it.

The Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist was a child prodigy, who entered the Royal Academy of Art in 1789, at the age of 14.

He showed an early interest in architecture but was advised to focus on painting. His first watercolour, A View of the Archbishop's Palace, Lambeth, was accepted for the Royal Academy summer exhibition of 1790 when Turner was just 15.

He became known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings which developed over his lifetime.

The evening included a tasting of Mr Turner's Porter, a bespoke brew created specially for the occasion.

The meeting mentioned that little was known of Turner's religious background or whether he had faith.

Fr Dominic Robinson SJ, parish priest at Farm Street Church, said afterwards: "He would have been aware of Catholics, he would have been aware of Catholics being legalised again in Britain with Catholic emancipation in 1829, he would have been well aware of that.

"He was a man of great knowledge with a sense of what was going on in the local culture so would have been well aware of faith and how it impacted on culture at the start of the 19th century."

Fr Robinson added: "It was really important Turner was remembered and it would seem at first maybe, that Turner isn't really related to Mayfair but this is really a Covent Garden thing.

But in fact Turner was all over London and this was a part of London which during his lifetime was growing.

"The very streets and squares and new houses that would have sprung up at the time when Jesuits were moving into this part of London, Mayfair and St James, and building this amazing church - Farm Street, he would have trod this very earth.

"He would have known the people, he would have sensed the atmosphere of a changing culture in the first part of the 19th century which was all part of the genesis of Farm Street church. It's very appropriate that we held this here and we were really grateful to do it."

The map will be unveiled at midday on Wednesday, 14 May, in the Porterhouse Bar, Covent Garden.