O
ne of the capital’s most wonderful buildings
The Guardian
History
St George’s Bloomsbury is one of the twelve new churches designed and paid for under the 1711 Act of
Parliament for building Fifty New Churches, and the sixth and final London church designed by the leading
architect of the English Baroque, Nicholas Hawksmoor.
The 1711 Act of Parliament was passed by the new Tory government in response to the increasing number of
non-conformist chapels and places of worship in London, all of which were intended to serve its rapidly
growing population. The Commissioners of the Act, led by Sir Christopher Wren, quickly set about
identifying those areas of London most in need of new places of worship directly controlled by the Church of
England.
The land on which the church is built (the ‘Ploughyard’) was bought for £1,000 from Lady Russell, widow of
the Whig rebel Lord John Russell who had been executed in 1683. This is not an insubstantial sum, which
begs the question why it was spent on a narrow, rectangular plot of land on a North-South axis that was
hemmed in by buildings on all sides; a purchase which seemed to fly in the face of the Commissioners’ 1711
stipulation that “no site ought to be pitched upon for the erecting [of] a new church where the same will not
admit the church to be placed East and West.” Perhaps the orientation of the site was deemed a
surmountable obstacle, especially since the site met the needs of the commissioners in that it was situated
“amongst the… better sort… [and on] the larger and more open streets, not in obscure lanes, nor where
coaches will be much obstructed in the passage.”
The land purchase was the work of one of the two surveyors appointed by the Commissioners of the 1711
Act: Nicholas Hawksmoor. Unlike others appointed by the Commissioners, Hawksmoor continued to work
as a surveyor of the 1711 Act churches until his death in 1736. Of the twelve churches completed, he would
ultimately be responsible for designing six, of which St George’s Bloomsbury was the last. His final designs
for St George’s, however, were only commissioned and then adopted after earlier designs by James Gibbs
and Sir John Vanburgh (who proposed building a church with the altar in the north) were rejected by the
Commissioners.
St George’s was consecrated on the 28th January 1730 by Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London. At this time,
Bloomsbury was part of the parish of St Giles in the Fields. Not only was St Giles unable to meet the needs
of the increasing parish population, but it was also surrounded by one of London’s most notorious slums;
the Rookery. Hogarth’s Gin Lane (1751), with the spire of St George’s clearly visible towards the top of the
picture, gives us an idea of the squalor and despair that characterised the area. Regular visits to St Giles in
the Fields would hardly have been an attractive proposition to the nobility, gentry and well to-do taking up
residence in the fashionable streets and squares of Bloomsbury, built and managed by the Duke of Bedford.
Despite the grandeur of Hawksmoor’s design, the parish Vestrymen felt that his completed church did not
provide sufficient accommodation for the parish and, as a result, the church was re-orientated along a
north-south axis in 1781.
During the 19th century, St George’s was particularly active in the Church of England’s ‘civilizing mission’,
providing practical help such as schools, a library and a soup kitchen for the local community. The early
20th century saw St George’s play an active role in both spiritual and secular affairs. In 1913, St George’s the
church was the setting for the memorial service for Emily Davison, the suffragette who threw herself under
the King’s horse in the Derby. In 1937, St George’s held a special service of remembrance for those killed
during the Abyssinian War which was attended by Haile Selassie.
From 1956 – 1968, St George’s Bloomsbury served as the University of London’s church, with the Rector as
Senior Chaplain. After this association with the University of London had ended, the church struggled to
establish a clear role for itself within the local community and fell into disrepair. Attempts during the 1990s
to restore the building attracted the attention of the World Monuments Fund, whose subsequent adoption
of the restoration of St George’s as a major project was the crucial first step towards the successfully-
restored church we see today.
Should you wish to find out more about St George’s Bloomsbury and Hawksmoor’s London Churches, we
would recommend the following works:
De la Ruffiniere du Prey, P, 2000.
Hawksmoor’s London Churches. Architecture and Theology.
London: University of Chicago Press.
Downes, K, 1970.
Hawksmoor.
London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.
Meller, H, 1975.
St George’s Bloomsbury.
London: St George’s Bloomsbury.
Tames, R, 1993.
Bloomsbury Past. A Visual History.
London: Historical Publications.
Colin Amery, Kerry Downes and Gavin Stamp, 2008
St George’s Bloomsbury
London: World Monuments Fund
One of London’s more characterful corners and a
work of blinding originality, raw emotion and
interesting symbolism.
Hugh Pearman, The Sunday Times
When Henry the Eighth left the Pope in the lurch
The Protestants made him the head of the Church;
But George’s good subjects, the Bloomsbury people,
Instead of the Church, made him head of the steeple
Anon
Interior: alterations to Hawksmoor’s original design
St George’s Bloomsbury was designed by Hawksmoor as an auditory’
church, following guidelines written by Christopher Wren. The space was
designed specifically for the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer; it was
of paramount importance that the service be heard (even if it wasn’t
clearly seen) by all members of the congregation. Following the
Commissioners’ stipulation, the altar was to be sited in the traditional
position in the east. Hawksmoor’s original designs for the site show a
church built in the shape of an oval, however these were rejected by the
Commissioners. Others, including James Gibbs (also responsible for
designing St Martin in the Fields) and Sir John Vanbrugh submitted
unsuccessful designs before Hawksmoor was persuaded to revisit the
project with the results you see today.
As soon as the church opened in 1730, however, the parish Vestrymen
were up in arms at what they perceived as a lack of accommodation: 447
seats compared with the 2,000 who could be accommodated inside
Wren’s St James Piccadilly. Disputes and a lack of certainty over whether
the vestry had the authority to make decisions on temporal as well as
ecclesiastical issues to do with the church meant that nothing was done
until 1781, when the addition of 337 new seats required a complete re-
orientation of the church interior with the altar and reredos being moved
to the north. This was just the beginning of the alterations that would be
made to Hawksmoor’s original design during the late-18th and 19th
centuries; further work included the erection of galleries on the west and
east walls, making St George’s perhaps the only church in London which
has had galleries on all four sides during its history. In 1870, under the
eye of G.E. Street, the east and west galleries were taken down leaving the
church in the state it would remain until 2003.
Nave
The nave of St George’s Bloomsbury is a cube, lit by raised clerestory
windows. The plasterwork flower the centre of the ceiling is the work of
Isaac Mansfield who, like many of the craftsmen working for Hawksmoor
at St George’s, regularly worked for the Office of Works. At the centre of
all but one of the proscenium arches is a keystone embellished by a tongue
of flame; this represents the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. There are
seven such keystones in total; as a group, these probably represent the
gifts of the Holy Spirit received at Confirmation. The keystone above the
east apse is different however; it is inscribed with the Tetragrammaton
(the name of God in Hebrew). This can also be found inscribed towards
the top of the reredos.
In the 1730s, the nave would have been filled with box pews, positioned so
that the congregation would face inwards (north/south), as in choir stalls
or in the collegiate manner. These were mostly replaced in the 19th
century with pews; some of these have been placed in the north gallery. As
part of the recent restoration, the Victorian pews were replaced with new
bespoke oak benches designed specifically for the space by Luke Hughes &
Co. of Drury Lane. These benches were built in a way that enables us to
use the space as flexibly as possible.
Chandelier
World Monuments Fund Britain helped to fund the £9 million restoration
of St George’s Bloomsbury. The finishing touch was the installation, in
November 2009, of this 17th century Dutch chandelier, kindly loaned
from the Victoria and Albert Museum, where it formerly graced the Grand
Entrance for much of the 20th Century.
Weighing 740kg and over two metres wide at its core, with thirty-six
scrolling branches, it once hung in the Catholic church of Kaatsheuval,
The Netherlands, and is a rare and very fine example of the flamboyant
style of north-west European chandeliers that were made between 1680-
1730.
We would like to thank the Victoria and Albert Museum for loaning the
chandelier to St George’s Bloomsbury and for all their support during the
installation.
Galleries and organ
Perhaps the most important aspect of the recent restoration has been the
return of the church to its original East-West orientation. Crucial to
Hawksmoor’s original design was the provision of two galleries; one on
the south and one on the north. Not only did these galleries serve as visual
blinkers for visitors arriving via the west tower entrance, (thus countering
the north-south orientation of the site by discouraging visitors from facing
anywhere but east), but they also satisfied the Vestry’s need for two
separate, yet equally visible, seating positions for its most important
parishioners; the Dukes of Bedford and Montague.
A new North Gallery has been reinstalled, as the original was removed
during the 1780s re-orientation of the church; whilst the South Gallery
has been conserved and restored to its original condition, as the middle
section of this gallery had been moved forwards in 1952 taccommodate an
organ, itself removed during the restoration.
St George’s Bloomsbury did not have an organ until 1788. In 1792, the
church organ was moved to the south gallery before being moved to the
north-west in 1871 on Street’s instructions. In 1900, the organ was
enlarged and divided into two sections placed on either side of the altar
(in the north).
This organ was eventually dismantled in advance of a new organ’s arrival
in 1952 - however this instrument proved unsuitable for the space and
was subsequently also removed.
East Apse and furnishings
As part of the 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 in this part of the church shows baptismal themes (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).
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
the 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 also depicted, 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.
Undercroft
The undercroft (or vaults) beneath the church were largely unused until
1803, when the Vestry decided to allow bodies to be buried there. This
decision was made in an attempt to reduce the number of burials taking
place in St George’s burial ground (now St George’s Gardens, close to
Coram Fields), which the Vestry feared would soon be full. By 1844,
many coffins deposited in the undercroft were so decayed that they had
to be bricked up in a side vault, and after 1856, no further bodies were
buried beneath the church.
The funeral monuments inside the church all relate to individuals buried
in the undercroft. The most ornate memorial, located by the west tower
entrance, is that of Charles Grant, Chairman of the East India Company
and friend of abolitionist William Wilberforce, with whom Grant created
the free colony of Sierra Leone.
During the restoration of St George’s, an initial survey of the undercroft
suggested that it contained approximately 300 coffins. In fact, the final
total was closer to 900. Each was reverently disinterred and their
contents reburied in a marked plot in St Pancras and Islington cemetery.
South front and steeple
The south front, described by Pevsner as “the most grandiose of
London’s 18th century church fronts,” is dominated by a large
Corinthian portico. Near-contemporaries of Hawksmoor (particularly
the antiquarian William Stukeley, Rector of nearby St George’s, Queen’s
Square), believed that the
inspiration behind the portico was the Roman Temple of Bacchus at
Baalbek in the Lebanon. This view is supportedby the fact that, in 1703,
Hawksmoor was commissioned to provide illustrations for a book about
the Baalbek temples written by Henry Maundrell; did these drawings
serve as a model for the south front of St George’s?
Looking up at the tower, you can see recessed arches; a typical feature of
Hawksmoor’s work, however, the steeple is completely unique. The
statue of George I at its pinnacle was paid for by William Hucks;
parishioner, MP for Abingdon and royal brewer, whose motives for doing
so must remain a matter for debate. The statue sits proudly on top of a
stepped pyramid whose design was based upon Pliny’s description of the
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in Turkey. Architects of this period would
often include full or partial reconstructions of classical structures in their
designs; a similar stepped pyramid can be seen on top the west dome of
Wren’s 1673 design for St Paul’s Cathedral; however, St George’s was the
first time such a pyramid had been built as part of a final design.
The lions and unicorns clambering around the base of the steeple are
reconstructions, created by the sculptor TimCrawley and installed on the
tower in 2006. The original lions and unicorns were commissioned by
Hawksmoor without the permission of the Commissioners, who initially
refused to pay for them. They were removed in the 1870s for reasons that
remain unclear; with the steeple as a whole recorded in the parish
minutes as being “a dangerous state”, were the costs of
repairing/preserving them too high or had years of derision made them
unwanted? They were certainly held in affection by some as they can be
clearly seen in replica on top of the two 20th Century lamps located at
the portico steps.
North front
The site of St George’s Bloomsbury has always been surrounded by tall
buildings on all sides. Hawksmoor took full advantage of this fact and
designed a north front completely different to the south. This design
resembles an Italian palace along the lines of those illustrated in the many
books of Italian architecture owned by Wren and subsequently by
Hawksmoor. The use of large keystones is a typical feature of