Category: Religion Page 2 of 19

One of the great joys of London is that you can walk over the same area again and again and still find something new or, alternatively, more detail about a place you knew already.

Last week I decided to start by visiting the pretty, quiet space in Banner Street known as Quaker Gardens (EC1Y 8QQ). All the other locations I write about today are about five minutes walk away from there …

There are three venerable London Plane trees providing shade …

This land, purchased in 1661 for a burial ground, was the earliest freehold property of the Quakers (also known as The Society of Friends) in London. Over a thousand victims of the Great Plague were buried here in 1665.

Here it is on John Rocque’s map of 1746 …

The Burial Acts of the 1850s forced the closure of all central London burial grounds. Having expanded considerably, by the time that the Bunhill site was closed in 1855 there were nearly 12,000 recorded burials.

I found these burial records from 1787 online …

Quaker burials are very simple and Quakers have not traditionally placed headstones on burial sites, being thought too showy or worldly. There is, however, a plain memorial to George Fox, Quakerism’s founder, who was buried here in 1691 …

There is also a stone plaque recording the history of the site and buildings …

The wording is not very clear now but I have found an earlier image …

Persecution of Quakers was common in 17th century England, one of the most serious punishments being transportation. Among the ‘martyr Friends’ buried here are included twenty-seven who died of plague awaiting transportation on the ship ominously named The Black Eagle. The war with the Dutch, along with the plague, made it difficult to find a ship’s master willing to brave the seas but in May 1665 the Sheriffs of London found someone willing to do so. The sea captain, called Fudge, boasted that he would happily transport even his nearest relations. About 40 men and women were bundled aboard his ship which was lying at Greenwich. Then Fudge was arrested for debt, with soldiers sent from the Tower to guard the human cargo as most of the crew had deserted. As well as the plague deaths, many more prisoners had perished before the ship eventually sailed.

The burial ground lay unused until 1880 when the Metropolitan Board of Works took part of the site for road widening and the compensation money paid for the building of a Memorial Hall, which included a coffee tavern and lodging rooms …

The Hall was destroyed by bombs in 1944. A small surviving fragment, known as the cottage, which had been the manager’s house, was restored to serve as a small meeting house (as it still does to this day) …

An old plaque dated 1793 …

‘This wall and Seven Houses on the grounds on the north side are the Property of the Society of Friends 1793’.

I haven’t been able to find out more about the very sadly missed Marna Shapiro …

I like the kisses.

A very appropriate place for quiet contemplation …

For a brief history of the Quakers I recommend this site – Quakers around Shoreditch. For a more detailed history, I have enjoyed reading Portrait in Grey by John Punshon (September 2006, Quaker Books). It’s where I found the story of the wonderfully named Captain Fudge and the Black Eagle.

Leave the garden by the Chequer Street entrance, turn left, and you will encounter something unusual – wooden block road paving …

Designed to be durable, but far less noisy than cobbles, experiments with wood block paving started in 1873 and initially proved successful. Eventually replaced by tar from the 1920s onwards, this section is one of few remaining in London. You can just make out some tree growth rings …

See the brilliant Living London History blog for a fascinating detailed history.

I must have walked past this typical industrial building in Banner Street dozens of times …

Last week I paused at the rather imposing entrance …

… and looked up …

A classical broken pediment, the date 1911 and the company name Chater Lea Ltd. This was a British bicycle, car and motorcycle maker and the Banner Street premises were purpose built for them in 1911. Eventually needing to expand production, they moved to Letchworth, Hertfordshire in 1928.

The company was founded by William Chater Lea in 1890 to make bicycle frames and components. It made cars between 1907 and 1922 and motorcycles from 1903 to 1935. William died in 1927 and the business was taken over by his sons John and Bernard …

You can read more about the company history here and it looks like they are currently working on a major relaunch. Here’s their website which also contains some great historical background and images.

It is nice to see that this extraordinary piece of work has found a place on Roscoe Street where everyone can see it. It needs to be viewed from a distance for maximum effect …

I watched it being created at this year’s Whitecross Street Party …

Nearby on Roscoe Street, the mysterious headless man – also created at the Party …

Tyger Tyger on Baird Street …

A Chequer Street EC1 celebration …

… and a mosaic on the same building …

Pretty door and heart combined at 65 Banner Street …

In a nearby car park …

I love the honey coloured bricks of the Peabody Estate …

In the foreground, another piece left over from the Party …

And finally, consider this tree at the west end of Chequer Street …

My scientist friend Emma reliably informs me that it’s an Indian Bean Tree, Catalpa Bignonioides …

The view from Whitecross Street …

These trees are described online as ‘principally grown for their broad headed attractive foliage, exquisite bell shaped summer flowers and in autumn they develop bean-like hanging fruit which persist through winter’.

Here’s an example of the fruit on the Chequer Street tree …

In my view, this tree is evidence of the considerable thought that went into the planning of the Peabody Estate environment as well as the buildings themselves.

Incidentally, the estate also boasts a man-eating Agavi plant …

Mr Peabody features strongly in my book Courage, Crime and Charity in the City of London which you can buy using the link on this site – only £10. Or just pop in to the Daunt Bookshop in Cheapside or Marylebone High Street.

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Swords, spears, arrows and cherubs warming their feet – a great visit to St Michael Cornhill.

By The City Gent

On 1st August 2024

In Architecture, Memorials, Religion, Sculpture

St Michael Cornhill impresses even before you go through the door.

Above the entrance is the warrior Archangel Michael ‘disputing with Satan’. It was carved by John Birnie Philip when the church was remodelled in 1858-1860. No question as to who is winning this battle …

To the right of the entrance is another sculpture of Michael brandishing a flaming sword. It is a bronze memorial to the 170 out of the 2,130 men of this parish who enrolled for military service in the First World War and died as a result …

The sculpture (by R R Goulden) was described in the Builder magazine as follows

St Michael with the flaming sword stands steadfast above the quarreling beasts which typify war, and are sliding slowly, but surely, from their previous paramount position. Life, in the shape of young children, rises with increasing confidence under the protection of the champion of right.

Walk down the narrow alley beside the church and you come to a lovely, quiet churchyard where you get a good view of the commanding tower …

Originally believed to be by Wren, it was rebuilt in the ‘Gothic’ style between 1718 and 1722 by his protégé Nicholas Hawksmoor.

The church, with the exception of the tower, was completely destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. The church history notes state that it was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren between 1669 and 1672. The interior, with its majestic Tuscan columns, was beautified and repaired in 1701 and again in 1790 and then extensively ‘remodelled’ in the High Victorian manner by Sir George Gilbert Scott between 1857 and 1860 …

John Birnie Philip also carved the angels …

Pre-Victorian features that remain today include 17th century paintings of Moses and Aaron incorporated into the reredos …

… and a beautiful wooden sculpture of ‘Pelican in her Piety’ dating from 1775 …

The 1850s stained glass was made by the firm Clayton & Bell …

The box pews date from the Scott remodelling …

In 1716, the poet Thomas Gray, famous for his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, was born in a milliner’s shop adjacent to St. Michael’s and was baptised in the church. Two hundred years later, Martin Neary, who became Master of the Music at Westminster Abbey, was baptised in the same font, which dates from 1672 …

Look to the left on entering and you’ll see the noteworthy Churchwarden’s pew …

It shows St Michael thrusting a lance into the mouth of a truly evil-looking devil. It’s a work by the eminent wood carver William Gibbs Rogers (1792-1875) …

The present organ began life in 1684 …

You can read more about its fascinating history here. I attended the recital last Monday. Absolutely wonderful. On Bank Holiday Monday (26 August) at 1:00 pm you can listen online as David Goode plays Holst’s The Planets. Join on Zoom from 12:45 pm ID 828 1357 0952 Passcode 827123.

Regular readers will know that I like a nice monument or memorial and this church has over 40 of them, many in clusters like these …

I’ve picked a few favourites.

The earliest is to John Vernon who died in 1615. It was erected by the Merchant Taylors Company after the Great Fire of 1666 to replace the ‘ruined’ original. He was a generous benefactor to the Company and its scholars. When he started to lose his sight he gifted his collection of paintings to the company so his fellows could better enjoy them as he could no longer see. Every year at Christmas boys from the Merchant Taylors’ School visit the church to sing at the special Vernon Carol Service …

He has a contemplative expression enhanced by the posing of his hands, one to his breast, the other resting on a skull, emblem of mortality and death. He wears a broad ruff and a fur lined cloak.

Next door, the Platt Family cherub endeavours to keep his feet warm …

The biggest monument in the Church is to Sir Edward Cowper who died in 1685. Bob Speel describes it as follows: ‘a grand mass of marble rising from the floor with fantastically twisted pillars and strikingly coloured marble. Perhaps by the sculptor Thomas Cartwright Senior, another of the sculptor-masons working on Wren’s City Churches’ …

In the same corner of the Church is the monument to Sir William Cowper, who died in 1664 and his wife Martha [Master] of East Langdon, and their fourth son, Spencer Cowper …

If you want to visit and inspect the memorials in more detail let Bob Speel be your guide.

I admired the coats of arms at the end of the pews …

This one in particular intrigued me …

Whose arms are these? The mitre in the carving suggests a bishop but what are the birds all about, with their necks pierced by arrows? All is revealed in the Friends of City Churches Newsletter – highly recommended!

In addition to the war memorial outside there are several inside the church itself.

This one reads: In proud and grateful memory of the men of the County of London Electric Supply Company Limited and its associated companies who gave their lives for their country.

The Royal Fusiliers and local office workers …

The Stock Exchange Battalion …

And finally, an unusual item. This is a book prepared by the Association of British Civilian Internees, Far East Region, and placed here on 24th May 2009 …

St Michael’s church doesn’t seem to be open very often (despite what the website says). I got in because I wanted to attend the organ recital. According to their website, the wonderful Friends of City Churches are there on Tuesdays between 11:00 and 3:00.

On my way home this shop window display made me smile…

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The first man to swim the Channel and other treats in St Botolph without Aldersgate.

By The City Gent

On 25th July 2024

In Memorials, Religion, Stained Glass, Wartime

This lovely church has usually been closed when I have hoped to visit but last week I was lucky enough to drop in thanks to the Friends of City Churches being on duty.

The City once had four churches dedicated to St Botolph, each at one of the City gates, a reminder that St Botolph is traditionally the patron saint of travellers and wayfarers. Three of the churches survive and this is one of them. It is on Aldersgate and its old churchyard at the rear now houses the Watts Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice.

The church as seen from the Barbican Highwalk …

Although it suffered only minor damage in the Great Fire it was rebuilt in 1789-91 by Nathaniel Wright, surveyor to the City. The facade and Venetian window were added circa 1831 after the church had to be shortened for widening of the road. It contains numerous interesting memorials and lots of stained glass. For more about the former I highly recommend the brilliant Bob Speel website from which I will quote extensively in this blog!

Here are my favourites, memorials first.

The most notable is Lady Anne Packington’s Gothic altar tomb of 1563 …

In the recess are brasses of Dame Anne and her (deceased) husband Sir John Packington, and a shield of arms. They kneel facing slightly inwards towards each other, hands raised in prayer, each with their faldstool or prayer desk, with opened book. Sir John wears armour but is bareheaded, with wavy hair down to the shoulders, beard and whiskers; his helmet is placed in front of him. Dame Anne wears a long robe with wide collar, and behind her is a miniature replica, her daughter.

The first of my other favourites is this one of Elizabeth (Hewytt) Richardson who died in 1639 and was the wife of Thomas Richardson of Honningh, Norforlk, who erected the monument …

She had 10 children, seven sons and three daughters, and was ‘a fitt patterne for all women of honor, piete and religion’. Bob Speel comments that ‘the figure faces directly forward with a rather blank, rectangular face, surrounded by curled hair which would seem to be a wig. She wears a curious collar giving a triangular shape to her upper body’.

Mr Speel very much favours the second portrait bust in the church, that of Elizabeth Ashton who died in 1662. It was erected by a daughter, Elizabeth Beaumont …

Mr Speel waxes lyrical as follows: ‘Well, here is something clearly based on the odd Elizabeth Richardson monument noted above, but what a difference in quality. A naturalistic portrait sculpture of the deceased, again facing forward, with a slight smile, wavy rather than curly hair, a tight-fitting cap above, a similar broad collar to the earlier monument but here shaped to the shoulders, and with tassels at the front above the breast. Again a similar pose to the hands, upward turned in front of her; one plump hand supports the other, which holds a book. She has broad sleeves, gathered in at the wrist. Again, an oval niche, squared off surround, and this time a more appropriate top, being simply a swan necked pediment, with painted shield of arms within minor strapwork above.’

Speel identified two two must-see monuments. First, a tall, grey panel to Elizabeth Smith who died in 1750. It contains a poem, beginning ‘Not far remote lies a lamented Fair, // Whom Heav’n had fashion’d with peculiar Care’, and ending sombrely ‘Learn from this Marble, what thou valu’st most, // And sett’st thy Heart upon, may soon be lost.’ It includes a portrait carved in high relief, notable for being a work of the eminent sculptor Louis-Francois Roubiliac …

The second is the largest wall monument, tall enough that a cut-out had to be left in the gallery above. It is to Zachariah Foxall who died in 1758. ‘His portrait can be seen at the top of the monument, a drape held above it by a cherub, with a second cherub seated on the other side, on top of a great boxy casket protruding from the wall. A good example of the more grand, extravagant style of many monuments of around this period, by a sculptor called James Annis, who had his mason’s yard close by in Aldersgate Street itself’ …

Two fine Victorian gentlemen with fine Victorian beards ..

One of three incredible cartouches …

Do try and find a time to visit this church and maybe use Bob Speel’s excellent website to guide you around the numerous monuments of which these are just a small selection.

When it comes to the glass, of particular merit is an impressive window at the east end of the church – not stained glass but a ‘transparency’ (a painting on glass). It is the only one of its kind in the city, painted by James Pearson in 1788. It depicts ‘The Agony in the Garden’ …

By contrast, the stained glass windows are all Victorian or later.

When I saw this one ‘In memory of Matthew Webb’ I thought ‘That name rings a bell …’

Captain Webb was the first man to successfully swim the English Channel. His first attempt was on 12 August 1875 but poor weather and sea conditions forced him to abandon his attempt. Twelve days later, he set off again and, despite several jellyfish stings and strong currents, he completed the swim, which was calculated at 40 miles, in 21 hours and 40 minutes …

One form of celebrity endorsement at the time was to lend your name to a manufacturer of matches …

Tragically, he drowned in 1883 while attempting to cross the Whirlpool Rapids below Niagara Falls. A memorial in his home town of Daley, Shropshire, reads: “Nothing great is easy.”

Some examples of the other windows …

Finally – Lest we forget.

At the east end of the church is a memorial book …

It records the names of nearly 1800 members of the Post Office Rifles who died in action during the Great War, evidence of St Botolph’s connections with the London General Post Office that was once situated nearby.

Some images I have found online (copyrights The Postal Museum) …

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Category: Religion Page 2 of 19

Some local curiosities – including Quaker graves, an Indian Bean tree and classy bicycles.

Swords, spears, arrows and cherubs warming their feet – a great visit to St Michael Cornhill.

The first man to swim the Channel and other treats in St Botolph without Aldersgate.