St Stephen Walbrook
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox church St Stephen Walbrook is a church in the City of London, part of the Church of England's Diocese of London. The present domed building was erected to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren following the destruction of its medieval predecessor in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It is located in Walbrook, next to the Mansion House, and near to Bank and Monument Underground stations.
Early historyEdit
The original church of St Stephen stood on the west side of the street today known as Walbrook and on the east bank of the Walbrook,<ref>White 1900, p.285</ref> once an important fresh water stream for the Romans running south-westerly across the City of London from the City Wall near Moorfields to the Thames. The original church is thought to have been built directly over the remains of a Roman Mithraic Temple following a common Christian practice of hallowing former heathen sites of worship.<ref name=history>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The church was moved to its present higher site on the other side of Walbrook Street, still on the east side of the River Walbrook<ref name=godwin/> (later diverted and concealed in a brick culvert running under Walbrook Street and Dowgate Hill on a straightened route to the Thames),<ref>White 1900, p.63</ref> in the 15th century. In 1429 Robert Chichele, acting as executor of the will of the former Lord Mayor, William Standon, had bought a piece of land close to the Stocks Market (on the site of the later Mansion House) and presented it to the parish.<ref name=godwin/> Several foundation stones were laid at a ceremony on 11 May 1429,<ref>"The City of London Churches: monuments of another age" Quantrill, E; Quantrill, M p90: London; Quartet; 1975</ref> and the church was consecrated ten years later, on 30 April 1439.<ref>White 1900, p.288</ref> At Template:Convert long and Template:Convert wide, it was considerably larger than the present building.<ref name="White 1900, p.296">White 1900, p.296</ref>
The church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.<ref name=godwin/> It contained a memorial to the composer John Dunstaple. The wording of the epitaph had been recorded in the early 17th century, and was reinstated in the church in 1904, some 450 years after his death.Template:Citation needed The nearby church of St Benet Sherehog, also destroyed in the Great Fire, was not rebuilt; instead its parish was united with that of St Stephen.<ref name=godwin/>
Wren's churchEdit
The present building was constructed between 1672 and 1679<ref>"The City Churches" Tabor, M. p102:London; The Swarthmore Press Ltd; 1917</ref> to a design by Sir Christopher Wren, at a cost of £7,692.<ref name="White 1900, p.296"/> The mason was Thomas Strong brother of Edward Strong the Elder and the spire is by Edward Strong the Younger.<ref>Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660–1859 by Rupert Gunnis</ref> It is rectangular in plan,<ref>Britton and Pugin 1825, p34</ref> with a dome and an attached north west tower. Entry to the church is up a flight of sixteen steps, enclosed in a porch attached to the west front.<ref name=godwin/> Wren also designed a porch for the north side of the church. This was never built, but there once was a north door, which was bricked up in 1685, as it let in the offensive smells from the slaughterhouses in the neighbouring Stocks Market.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The walls, tower,<ref name="Britton and Pugin 1825, p37">Britton and Pugin 1825, p37</ref> and internal columns <ref name=godwin>Template:Cite book</ref> are made of stone, but the dome is of timber<ref name="Britton and Pugin 1825, p37"/> and plaster with an external covering of copper<ref name=ioe/>
The Template:Convert high dome is based on Wren's original design for St Paul's, and is centred over a square of twelve columns<ref name=betj/> of the Corinthian order.<ref name=godwin/> The circular base of the dome is not carried, in the conventional way, by pendentives formed above the arches of the square, but on a circle formed by eight arches that spring from eight of the twelve columns, cutting across each corner in the manner of the Byzantine squinch.<ref name=betj>Template:Cite book</ref> This all contributes to create what many consider to be one of Wren's finest church interiors. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner lists it as one of the ten most important buildings in England.
The contemporary carved furnishings of the church, including the altarpiece and Royal Arms, the pulpit and font cover, are attributed to the carpenters Thomas Creecher and Stephen Colledge, and the carvers William Newman and Jonathan Maine.<ref>S. Bradley and N. Pevsner, London: The City Churches (The Buildings of England), (Yale University Press, London and New Haven 2002), pp. 129–30.</ref>
In 1760 a new organ was provided by George England.
In 1776 the central window in the east wall was bricked up to allow for the installation of Devout Men Taking Away the Body of St Stephen, a painting by Benjamin West, which the rector, Thomas Wilson, had commissioned for the church.<ref>White 1900, p.386</ref><ref name= west/> The next year Wilson set up in the church a statue of Catharine Macaulay, (then still alive) whose political ideas he admired. It was removed after protests.<ref>White 1900, p.387</ref> The east window was unblocked, and the picture moved to the north wall, during extensive restorations in 1850.<ref>White 1900, p.299</ref>
Recent historyEdit
The church suffered slight damage from bombing during the London Blitz of 1941 and was later restored. In 1954, the united parishes of St Mary Bothaw and St Swithin London Stone (merged in 1670) were themselves united with the parish of St Stephen.
The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.<ref name=ioe>Template:NHLE</ref>
In 1953 the Samaritans charity was founded by the rector of St Stephen's, Dr Chad Varah. The first Samaritans branch (known as Central London Branch) operated from a crypt beneath the church before moving to Marshall Street in Soho. In tribute to this, a telephone is preserved in a glass box in the church. The Samaritans began with this telephone, and today the voluntary organisation staffs a 24-hour telephone hot-line for people in emotional need.
In 1987, as part of a major programme of repairs and reordering,<ref name=west>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> a massive white polished stone altar commissioned from the sculptor Henry Moore by churchwarden Peter Palumbo was installed in the centre of the church.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Its unusual positioning required the authorisation of a rare judgement of the Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved.<ref>Re St Stephen Walbrook [1987] 2 All ER 578</ref> In 1993 a circle of brightly coloured kneelers designed by Patrick Heron was added around the altar.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Benjamin West's Devout men taking away the body of St Stephen, previously hung on the north interior wall, was put into storage following the reordering. This decision was controversial, as the initial removal of the painting was illegal.<ref name=ahn>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2013 the church was given permission to sell the painting to a foundation, despite opposition from the London Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches, and by the Church of England's Church Buildings Council.<ref name=ahn/> Prior to the painting's export, a temporary export bar was placed on it to give it a last chance to stay in the UK.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The foundation has since loaned it to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which has undertaken restoration work on the painting.<ref name=west/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On 14 July 1994, the church was the venue for the wedding of Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones to Daniel Chatto.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
At the time of his retirement in 2003, at the age of 92, Dr Chad Varah was the oldest serving incumbent in the Church of England.<ref name=tele>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
RectorsEdit
- Peter 1301–1302 <ref>Rectors to 1904 from Template:Cite book; others as indicated</ref>
- Hugh de Marny 1315
- Willian de Stansfield 1325–1327
- Thomas Blundell 1350–1359
- Robert Eleker 1351–1385
- John Brown 1391–1395
- John Horewood 1395–1396
- Henry Chichele 1396–1397. Later Archbishop of Canterbury
- John Horewood 1397–1400
- John Beachfount 1400–1403
- Radman died 1419
- William Rock 1422. Resigned
- Thomas Southwell 1428–1440
- William Trokill 1440–1474
- Robert Rous 1474–1479
- William Sutton 1479–1502
- John Young 1502
- John Kite 1522–1534
- Elisha Bodley 1534
- Thomas Becon
- William Ventris 1554–1556
- Henry Pendleton 1556–1557
- Humphrey Busby 1557–1558
- Philip Pettit 1563 or 1564
- John Bendale 1563 or 1564
- Henry Wright 1564–1572
- Henry Trippe 1572–1601
- Roger Fenton 1601–1616
- Thomas Muriel 1615–1625
- Aaron Wilson 1625–1635
- Thomas Howell 1635–1641
- Michael Thomas 1641–1642
- Thomas Warren 1642
- Thomas Watson 1642–1662. Sequestered.
- Robert Marriott 1662–1689
- William Stonestreet 1689–1716
- Joseph Rawson 1716–1719
- Joseph Watson 1719–1737
- Thomas Wilson 1737–1784
- George S. Townely 1784–1835
- George Croly 1835–1861. Also a poet and novelist.
- William Windle 1861–1899
- Robert Stuart de Corcy Laffan 1899–1927<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Charles Clark 1927–1940<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Frank Gillingham 1940–1953<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Chad Varah 1953–2003<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Peter Delaney 2004–2014. As priest in charge<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Jonathan Evens 2015–2018. As priest in charge
- Stephen Baxter 2018–
BurialsEdit
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- Sir Rowland Hill, of Soulton publisher of the Geneva Bible, styled "First Protestant Lord Mayor of London": his monument was lost in the Great Fire of London but was restated at Hawkstone
- John Dunstaple, musician
- Elizabeth Jekyll (1624-1653) diarist<ref>Template:Cite ODNB</ref>
- John Vanbrugh, architect
The nearest London Underground station is Bank.
GalleryEdit
- Interior St Stephen Walbrook.jpg
Interior of St Stephen Walbrook
- St Stephen Church Ceiling.jpg
St Stephen Walbrook Ceiling 21st century
- St. Stephen Walbrook, Walbrook, EC4 - organ - geograph.org.uk - 1133186.jpg
The organ over the west door
- St Stephen Walbrook, Walbrook, City of London EC4N 8BN - Pulpit - geograph.org.uk - 426537.jpg
The wooden pulpit with its huge tester
- St Stephen Walbrook, Walbrook, City of London EC4N 8BN - Font - geograph.org.uk - 426541.jpg
The covered font
- The dome of the Church of St. Stephen Walbrook, Walbrook, EC4 - geograph.org.uk - 1131675.jpg
The dome and lantern seen from outside
- St Stephen Walbrook 20130324 033.jpg
See alsoEdit
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
- St Stephen Walbrook's parish website
- Church of England's St Stephen Walbrook page
- St Stephen Walbrook
- History of the Samaritans
- 360° panorama inside St Stephen Walbrook
Template:Churches in the City of London Template:Authority control