Places of worship, London

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The late 19th century Westminster Cathedral is the centre of the Catholic church in England. From outside it looks very different to other churches in London, and it is. It's red brick construction and interesting contours look almost Eastern to me.

Inside it isn't quite what I normally expect from a major catholic place of worship. It looks much more tasteful and restrained than anticipated. I am informed that the church is working on this however and is adding as much shiny stuff as they can as and when funds allow. For the time being however, I think the mixture of decoration and bare brick is rather nice. The presence of the vast dark space overhead is very atmospheric and when combined with the strong smell of incense which pervades the place it's rather impressive.

The chapels along the sides of the cathedral are where much of the decoration so far has gone and some of them are quite impressive. In particular I liked the Chapel of St Gregory and St Augustine which is dedicated to St Augustine who re-introduced christianity to post Roman England and St Gregory who was the Pope who sent him. The Holy Souls Chapel is also very pretty.

The Lady Chapel is supposed to give a glimpse of what the completed cathedral will be like throughout. Whilst it is attractive as a small side show to the main cathedral I find the idea of making the whole of this vast space so overly decorated to be quite tacky. I hope they think again before they have the funds to do it.

This cathedral is only a few minutes walk from Victoria train and tube stations and there is no admission charge (a great contrast to the incredibly expensive admission charge at Westminster Abbey!) although they do of course welcome donations.

Westminster Abbey is one of the "muat sees" for most visitors to London, and rightly so with it's centuries of history, Royal connections and so forth. There are frequently queues of tourists waiting patiently outside.

However, not ten minutes brisk walk up Victoria Street is another hugely important Christian building, certainly much different in architecture and history but well worth a visit and whilst I see plenty of peopl coming and going (I used to work nearby), I have never seen a queue outside it. The place in question is the Roman Catholic Wesminster Cathedral that you can see in the image.

The land on which the Cathedral stands has a somewhat chequered history having been variously a pleasure gardens, market, fairground and prison until it was acquired by the Catholic Church in 1894. The building was begun in 1895 and completed in 1903 to the design of John Francis Bentley. Although Divine worship began in 1903, the building was not consectrated as a Cathedral until 1910.

Inside the cathedral, one of the most impressive features of the place are the stations of the cross carved by the famous sculptor Eric Gill over a period of several years. Although not particularly well-received at the time (Gill was accused of having insufficient formal training) they are better thought of today and I quite like them.

Coming to more modern times, Her Majesty the Queen (head of the Anglican Church) attended her first Roman Catholic liturgy here in 1995 and His Holiness the Pope celbrated Mass here during his Papal visit to the UK in 2010.

For those of you with a head for heights you can visit the tower viewing gallery which is an impressive 210 feet up for what, I am told, are excellent views over London. I say I am told as I have no head for heights so didn't bother. The gallery is open

Monday to Friday:
9.30am to 5.00pm

Weekends / Holidays:
9.30am to 6.00pm

there is also an exhibition of the Cathedral's most prized possessions, open the same hours as the tower (above), which attracts a fee of £5 for adults with concessions available.

There is wheelchair access and an induction loop for hearing impaired worshippers. Full details of Mass Times are posted on the attahced website.

this less-visited place really is worth a visit.

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I have to say that Christian churches in the City of london, depite the best efforts of the Great Fire of London and the German Luftwaffe amongst other things, seem to fare fairly well and many are still fully functioning places of worship. As I have said in many other tips on SL, I am not a religious man, I am an atheist, although I have a great interest in churches, synagogues, temples, mosques, gurdwaras etc. etc., as I believe they are a great source of social history as well as places of great peace and often architectural significance. It therefore saddens me when I see a Church no longer open as is unfortunately the case with St. Nicholas Cole "Abbey" in Great Victoria Street right in the heart of the City of London and literally in the shadow of St. Pauls.

Although not open, I did rather enjoy looking at it as an architectural work, took some photos for VT and then decided to research it a little.

The church is first recorded in the 12th century but, like so much of the City, it was extensively damaged in the Great Fire of 1666. In fact, it was the first of the 51 churches destroyed to be rebuilt after the fire.

Despite several downturns in worshippers, by the late 19th century it was the best attended church in the City, attracting more then 450 worshippers.

However, as alluded to before, they place could not withstand the depradations of the Luftwaffe and the building was dammaged in 1941, not being rebuilt fully and reconsecrated until 1962.

I find it a little sad that, having survived as long as it has and survived so much, it is no longer open. Worth looking at on the way past.

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The UK has many strange names which sometimes cause either hilarity or downright incredulity amongst visitors, even those for whom English is a first language. Towns and villages like Chorlton-cum-Hardy, for example, would baffle the casual observer. However, there is a reason for all of them. Right in the heart of the City of London is the delightfully named St, Sepulchre without Newgate. Allow me to explain.

This Church has a massive history, some fairly macabre, but appeals to me as both a (fairly average) musician, it being the National Musicians Church, and also as an ex-soldier as it contains the memorial garden to a battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, a Regiment long associated with London.

I think, however, that starting at the beginning would be a good idea here. I am not sure if there is actually a St. Sepulchre and I have heard another story (possibly apocryphal) that the Church is so named because it was built exactly the same distance from the ancient Newgate in the city walls as was the Crusaders Church in Jerusalem from the gates of that city. Whatever the reason for the naming, it has been a place of worship since at least 1137, that being the first recorded mention of it.

Having been rebuilt in 1450, it was laid waste by the Great Fire of London in 1666 and, like so many of the other buildings in the City, was rebuilt on the instruction of Sir Cristopher Wren in 1670 - 1671. They did a magnificent job and it remains the largest Church in the City of London. However, the pre-existing grave of Captain John Smith, one of the original settlers of America, and he of Pocohontas fame, is buried here. There is a stained glass window to him in the Church.

I alluded to the macabre nature of the place and it relates to judicial execution. Newgate prison, formerly nearby, was where the condemned would spend their last night before being taken for public execution, normally on the gallows at Tyburn. At midnight on the day of execution, a bellman retrieved a bell from the Church, processed to the prison, rang his bell and incanted the following (hardly sympathetic) rhyme.

"All you that in the condemned hold do lie,
Prepare you, for tomorrow you shall die;
Watch all and pray, the hour is drawing near
That you before the Almighty must appear;
Examine well yourselves, in time repent,
That you may not to eternal flames be sent:
And when St. Sepulchre's bell tomorrow tolls,
The Lord above have mercy on your souls.”

Reassuring, isn't it? The bell itself is still on display in the Church.

So why the National Musicians Church? Well, it is due in no small part to the association of Sir Henry Wood, the founder of the internationally famous Promenade Concerts, better known as the Proms. He was appointed Assistant Organist at the church, aged 14, which is some achievement. On his death in 1944, his ashes were placed in the Church, and there is still a close association when "Promenaders" take the wreath off the bust of Sir Henry and, well, "promenade" it to the Albert Hall for the concerts.

As to the military association, the Church has also had a long association with what is now 8th Battalion RRF, a Territorial (Reserve / National Guard) Battalion, historically associated with the City and with HQ in HM Tower of London. If you look at the railings, they are painted in the Regimental colours. In fairness, I think they could make the garden a little more attractive but perhaps that is a personal opinion. The detail images accompanying this tip show the Garden and associated memorial plaque.

Should you wish to visit, the Church is open from 11.30am to 2.30pm each weekday, except for Wednesday, when it opens from 11am to 3pm. Well worth a visit.

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If, as we are told, location is everything, the Church of St. Lawrence Jewry is right up there with the best of them. Situated in Guidhall yard, right in the heart of the City of London, and adjacent to the magnificent Guildhall (see seperate tip) it truly is in a wonderful position.

The Church itself does not disappoint either, it is a delightful building. There has been a place of worship here since the 12th century and the original Church was probably built in 1136. Unfortunately, like most of the City, it perished in the Great Fire of 1666. However, some good came out of it as the Church was rebuilt between 1670 and 1678 by the famous Sir Christopher Wren, architect of so much of London, including St, Pauls, possibly his most famous work.

Having been once ravaged by fire in the 17th century, it was again destroyed in 1940 as the result of aerial bombing by the German Luftwaffe during World War II. Designated as a Grade 1 listed building (a Government designation controlling the protection of historical buildings), it was fully restored in 1957 and is now the patron Church of the Corporation of London, the body that effectively controls the City of London.

As you can see from the photos, the inside is, indeed, impressive with some excellent stained glass windows. The detail on the outside is a memorial to the men of the First London Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery who died in both World Wars. It is on the Northeast corner. The military theme is continued inside with a military chapel situated to the left as you enter. There are numerous "laid up" colours there and it is worth looking at.

On the day I visited, I was treated to an excellent, if somewhat strident, organ recital. I can certainly attest to the power of the organ here, it was awe-inspiring in the proper sense of the term.

If you are wondering about the slightly odd name, it refers to a nearby area called Old Jewry, which was the Jewish area in the City many centuries ago and still commemorated in the road of the same name.

Well worth a visit.

Although the Church of St. Andrews, Holborn, as it stands today, was rebuilt in 1961 (of which more later), there has been a place of Christian worship here since at least the middle of the 10th century, and excavations show that the Romans may have had a presence here before that.

In the 14th century a local man called Thavie donated a considerable sum for the upkeep of the church in perpetuity. He is commemorated in the neaby Thavies Inn, and the old wooden church was rebuilt in stone in the 15th century. The building miraculously survived the Great Fire of London in 1666, although most of the rest of the City was ravaged but after it sir Christopher Wren, the famous architect probably best known for St. Pauls Cathedral, decided to rebuild anyway. It remains the largest parish Church he built.

The Church survived the Great Fire but it could not escape the depradations of the German Luftwaffe during World War II and was extensively damaged in the Blitz of 1941. It took some time after the War to get it rebuilt, although it eventually was, in the original Wren style and was reconsecrated in 1961 with the slightly unusual status of a Guild Church i.e. a Church without a parish, designed to attend to the spiritual needs of local workers, a function it performs to this day. Indeed, the day I visited, a Mass was advertised for 6 in the evening, obviously to accomodate office workers.

I found the inside of the building to be quite stark, with a chessboard design tiled floor and three huge suspended objects of worhip lit up behind the altar but there is one item of interest. As you go in the door on the left you will see the tomb of Thomas Coram, an interesting man. Having made his fortune as a sea captain, he established a foudling hospital for abandoned infants who would otherwise have died. Not far away is Coram's Feilds, a childrens park on the site of the original hospital, and near the Foundling Museum. I had never known where his final resting place was until I visited lately. As I always say, I never go out for a day in London that I don't learn something.

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I am not an architect by any means but there are a series of Churches in London and I can immediately spot them as the work of Nicholas Hawksmoor (d. 1736). I could not describe it is architectural terms but, if you have seen them, you will know what I mean. If you look at my tip about St. George in the East Church not far away in the Highway E1 you will see what I mean. Christ Church Spitalfields is one of the first Hawksmoor Churches and people with far more knowledge than I apparently rate it as one of his best. I know that any time I pass it I never failed to be impressed by it.

It is scarcely surprising Hawksmoor was a great architect as he trained for 16 years under Sir Christopher Wren and assisted him in such projects as the Royal Hospital, Chelsea and the famout St. Pauls Cathedral in the City of London. Hawksmoor then went on to build a number of Churches in his own right and in this he was very much "in the right place at the right time" as Parliament had recently passed and Act of 1711 which established a Commission to build 50 new Churches. In the event, only 12 were built, six of them by Hawksmoor and Christ Church was built between 1714 and 1729.

The area was heavily populated at the time by French Hugenot refugees who were Protestant and had fled France to avoid religious persecution. This is reflected in the names of nearby streets such as Fleur de Lis Street and Fournier Street. They used the Church to a degree but preferred simpler chapels of their own. Indeed, the current Church Hall is one such chapel.

Magnificent as it is now, it was not always thus. I remember when I first came to London it was in a fairly sad state of repair and was only restored to it's present condition in stages finishing in 2004. This restoration gave architects the chance to restore Hawksmoors original ideas as the place had been radically altered by another architect in 1850. I think you will agree they made a fine job of it.

Should you wish to worship, service times are reproduced below.

* Sunday morning - 10.30am
* Sunday evening - 6pm
* Tuesday lunchtime - 1.10pm

If the VT reader had a time machine and travelled back to the East End of London about 100 years he or she would obviously have seen a much different place. for approximately1800 years Christianity has been the predominant religion in the UK as, indeed, in most of Western Europe, but our notional time traveller would have seen here a lot of Jewish synagogues associated with the immigrants of that faith who had flocked to the area in the preceeding decades. times move on, the Jews are all but gone, and a new wave of immigrants has come here, mostly Bangladeshi and somali and therefore Muslim. What you will see nowadays are mosques and Masjids everywhere.

The East London Mosque is certainly one of the most impressive examples of the new type of places of worship although it's history is much longer than the modern building would suggest. In 1910, Syed Ameer Ali decided to try and form a mosque to cater for the spiritual needs of the many Muslim sailors who landed at the nearby London docks. Initially, they were a fairly mobile community and only got their first permanent base in 1941 on the nearby Commercial Road in three converted houses. This situation continued until 1975 when the buildings were compulsorily purchased by the authorities for a road widening project. In return for giving up the premises the Mosque were granted land on the present site and the Mosque as you see it today was built in 1985. Current building work to the rear of the Mosque, which you can see in the photo, will provide a Cultural Centre.

Although not myself a Muslim, I have been inside the building and I can vouch that it is a very impressive structure inside as well. Visitors, I believe, are most welcome but may wish to avoid main prayer times as it is estimated that 23,000 worshippers come here every week, making it possibly the largest Mosque in Western Europe in terms of numbers.