London Churches & Olde Celebrities
Volumes I and II
London Churches & Olde Celebrities
Volume I: The City
A Compleat Guide and Perambulation
ISBN: 9780-9545017-6-1 276 pages size 26 x 20 £16.99 (2012)
Amazon Kindle (Revised Edition) $5.99 (2015)
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Introduction - History
City North - Guildhall to Old Jewry
City Central - Cheapside to Foster Lane
City West - St. Paul's to Fleet Street
City S. West - Baynard to Garlickhythe
City South - Walbrook to Lombard
City N. East - Cornhill to Aldgate
City East - Fenchurch to the Tower
Appendix, Renaissance (also see pictures below)
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After leaving the Isle of Wight on the completion of The Real Colin Blythe we moved to temporary accommodation in a converted stable near to Kingsbridge in Devon. This was the perfect writer's retreat complete with a historic location, cows grazing in the fields, and the famous Devon lanes created by centuries of cart wheel tracks. This temporary solution in fact lasted for five years either side of living in Christchurch, New Zealand.
After a degree of soul searching the idea for the next book was formulated based on a project initially done out of interest in the late 1990s. A number of weeks were spent visiting all the Wren churches and those designed by other architects in the City, as well as the many sites of former churches. This project was then combined with parish register entries researched at the Guildhall Library and Metropolitan Archives to provide a volume on the churches with genealogical data. The book was reviewed by Friends of City Churches and sold well in St. Paul's Cathedral (with Volume II), while the Renaissance Comparison contains information researched in Italy.
London Churches & Olde Celebrities
Volume II: Environs
A Compleat Guide and Perambulation
ISBN: 9780-9545017-7-8 354 pages size 26 x 20 £18.99 (2012)
Amazon Kindle (Revised Edition) $5.99 (2016) *
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Introduction - Stanford
London East - East End to Hackney
London North - Islington to Bloomsbury
London N. West - St. Pancras to Hampstead
London Central E. - Aldwych to Soho
London Central W. - Mayfair to Westminster
London West - Paddington to Chelsea
London South - Clapham to Newington
London S.E. - Bermondsey to Greenwich
Appendix, Photographs (also see pictures below)
* Kindle Vol. II North and East only covers Stepney, Islington, Hampstead and Soho in more detail. There was to have been a second volume South and West but this was superceded by London Churches (I - IV).
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During the research for the Founders of Soccer a large amount of new knowledge was gleaned regarding churches of the West End, whilst the author had already researched genealogies in the East End and South London. It was then decided to do a second book covering those edifices in Victorian London as delineated by Stanford's Map, and the research was in the field and at the Metropolitan and Westminster Archives. Due to the distance up to London, much of the research was undertaken whilst staying (or living) in a tent at three campsites on the outskirts.
The two volumes which were partly written in Christchurch, New Zealand appeared in 2012, whilst Volume II had an Appendix section containing several significant churches discovered just before the book was printed. In fact even as it came out, it was clear that there were omissions. The book gave a good overview covering all of Inner London, but the more detailed London Churches was to follow in 2017.
Pictures from the Books
St. Mary le Bow on Cheapside was one of the main City Churches and was named after stone vaults or bows in the crypt. After the fire, Wren built a monolithic tower with two-stage rotunda cupola to match its status, later copied at Shadwell and Shoreditch.
St. Benet’s, Paul’s Wharf was near a Roman landing stage and was designed by Hooke in the Dutch style in 1683. The main features are a mediaeval tower encased in brick with copper cupola, stone quoins, flower garlands, and hipped roofs above the north wall.
St. Botolph’s, Bishopsgate was built by James Gould and George Dance the elder in 1728. The Palladian façade with soaring Gothic tower was unique in the City being above the altar, although such an arrangement was also seen at St. Matthew’s in Brixton.
St. George in the East built by Nicholas Hawksmoor sits like a ship and is the cathedral of the East End. However it was bombed in the war and there is a modern church hidden inside the shell.
The Temple Church with its round, located in the legal precincts near to Blackfriars, dates to the mediavel period and the Knights Templar, but it was heavily restored after the Second War.
St. Paul's, Deptford was the first church begun by the Commission for Fifty Churches and was by Thomas Archer a gentleman. His grand portico was based on Santa Maria della Pace in Rome.
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