About St George’s Bloomsbury
- A short history
- Staff at St George’s Bloomsbury
- A tour of St George’s Bloomsbury
   - Interior: alterations to Hawksmoor’s
     original design
   - Nave
   - Galleries and organ
   - East apse and furnishings
   - Undercroft
   - South front and steeple
   - North front
   - Further reading
- Restoration
- Family history research

As part of the recent restoration of St George’s, the reredos
and altar have been restored to their original position in the
east apse. The reredos is made from ‘Cuban’ mahogany
(from the West Indies, but not necessarily from Cuba itself)
and inlaid with numerous other woods. It was made by
Thomas Phillip, John How and John Mead. When the church
was re-orientated in the 1780s, the reredos was moved to the
north and the east apse became a baptismal area containing
the original 1730s font (carved by the mason Edward Strong).
The apse remained a baptismal area during the Victorian
period, hence the stained glass (much of St George’s original
clear glass was replaced with stained glass made by Clayton
& Bell as part of the late-nineteenth century restoration
supervised by Street) in this part of the church, showing
baptismal themes. Famous people baptised here include the
Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope (1815), and Richard
Benson (1824), founder of the ‘Cowley Fathers’ (an Anglican
religious order).

Above the reredos, the ceiling decoration by Isaac Mansfield
depicts winged cherubs above mitres and crosiers (the
pastoral staffs carried by bishops shaped like a shepherd’s
crook). In the centre, you can see a pelican situated above a
baptismal shell. According to popular tradition, the pelican
pierces its own breast and feeds its young with its own blood;
so that together with the sheaves of corn, the pelican
represents the bread and wine of the Holy Communion.

The pulpit is original to Hawksmoor’s design and was made
by Thomas Phillips. It was moved from its original position
towards the centre of the north apse where, mounted on a
bar of iron cased in wood, it apparently ‘swayed like an
enormous tulip’ when a preacher climbed its steps.

To continue the tour, click here