London Churches
Volumes I - VI
London Churches
Volume I: The City
An Architectural and Social History
ISBN: To be allocated size 260 x 200
Amazon Kindle (Revised Edition) $5.99 (2017)
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Introduction - Stow, Pepys and Wren
1. Guildhall to Old Jewry
2. Cheapside to Foster Lane
3. St. Paul's to Fleet Street
4. Baynard to Garickhythe
5. Walbrook to Lombard
6. Cornhill to Aldgate
7. Fenchurch to the Tower
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Appendix
1. Parish Churches by Ward
2. City Churches demolished and replaced
3. Modern Parishes and Guild Churches
4. Nonconformist and Catholic
5. Renaissance by Comparison (also see pictures below)
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The entire project started in 2009 and the initial research included work in London and a trip by car to Renaissance sites in Rome, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Venice and Vicenza. The latter trip was nearly scuppered since in Spring 2010 the Alpine passes were mostly closed, but we found a route via the Julier Pass to St. Moritz and Lake Como, and on the return a route via Lugano, Bellinzona, the Simplon Pass and car train from Goppenstein near Brig through to Kandersteg in a valley above Interlaken.
This provided information for a Classical comparison with the churches in London, and a knowledge of Italy's important architectural influences. There was then a year in New Zealand, and on our return the research was completed including work on the London Suburbs. The first set of two books London Churches & Olde Celebrities appeared in 2012, but there were clearly more edifices of significance within the bounds of Victorian London. These were researched from that time around two trips to New Zealand, and it was expected the new work would be three volumes.
The title was changed to London Churches to give a more professional appearance, since bookshops such as the London Museum complained of the use of olde (in the vein of Stow) as being archaic, whilst the subtitle was altered to architecture and social history to better define the content. It soon became apparent that Victorian London had too much information so the series was altered to four books, with one on the City and three on the Environs. These titles were ready in a Kindle version in 2017, and the work on paperback copies and the two Suburbs is now underway.
London Churches
Volume II: North East
An Architectural and Social History
ISBN: To be allocated size 260 x 200
Amazon Kindle (Revised Edition) $5.99 (2017)
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Introduction - The Fifty Churches
John Strype and John Rocque
1. E - Whitechapel and Stepney
2. E - Docklands, Bow and Poplar
3. NE - Bethnal Green, Hackney, Shoreditch
4. CE - Finsbury and Clerkenwell
5. CN - Islington and Holloway Road
6. C - Holborn and Bloomsbury
7. N - St. Pancras and Highgate
8. NW - Marylebone and Hampstead
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Appendix
1. Anglican Parishes East
2. Anglican Parishes North East
3. Anglican Parishes Central
4. Anglican Parishes North West
5. Nonconformist and Catholic (also see pictures below)
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There is a description of the research for the book under Volume I.
Pictures from the Books
London Churches
Volume III: North West
An Architectural and Social History
ISBN: To be allocated size 260 x 200
Amazon Kindle (Revised Edition) $5.99 (2017)
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Introduction - Waterloo Churches
Oxford Movement, Metropolis Fund
1. CE - The Strand and Soho
2. CW - St. James's and Regent Street
3. CW - Mayfair and Hyde Park
4. C - Westminster and the Abbey
5. CS - Belgravia and Pimlico
6. N - Paddington and Bayswater
7. W - Notting Hill and North Kensington
8. SW - South Kensington and Brompton
9. S - Chelsea and Sloane Square
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Appendix
1. Anglican Parishes Central
2. Anglican Parishes North
3. Anglican Parishes West
4. Nonconformist and Catholic (also see pictures below)
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There is a description of the research for the book under Volume I.
London Churches
Volume IV: South
An Architectural and Social History
ISBN: To be allocated size 260 x 200
Amazon Kindle (Revised Edition) $5.99 (2017)
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Introduction - Edward Stanford
Final Conclusions
1. W - Battersea and Clapham
2. SW - Lambeth, Brixton and W. Norwood
3. C - Southwark, Newington & Walworth
4. CE - Bermondsey and Rotherhithe
5. CS - Camberwell and Dulwich
6. SE - Deptford, Greenwich & Blackheath
7. S - Lee and Lewisham
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​Appendix
1. Anglican Parishes S. West
2. Anglican Parishes Central
3. Anglican Parishes S. East
4. Nonconformist and Catholic (also see pictures below)
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There is a description of the research for the book under Volume I.
London Churches
Volume V: Suburbs North
An Architectural and Social History
ISBN: To be allocated size 260 x 200
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Introduction - Suburban Growth
1. EC - West Ham, Leyton and Walthamstow
2. E - Barking, Woodford and Chingford
3. N - Enfield, Edmonton and Tottenham
4. N - Finchley, Hendon and Barnet
5. NW - Willesden, Kingsbury and Stanmore
6. W - Harrow, Ruislip and Greenford
7. C - Fulham, Ealing and Brentford
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Appendix
1. Anglican Parishes East
2. Anglican Parishes North
3. Anglican Parishes West
4. Anglican Parishes Central
4. Nonconformist and Catholic
This book has already been researched and is currently in production.
London Churches
Volume VI: Suburbs South
An Architectural and Social History
ISBN: To be allocated size 260 x 200
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Introduction - Suburban Growth
1. NW - Hayes, Hounslow and Ashford
2. CW - Twickenham, Hampton and Staines
3. W - Weybridge, Molesey and Epsom
4. C - Kingston, Richmond and Wandsworth
5. S - Wimbledon, Sutton and Croydon
6. E - Bromley, Orpington and Sidcup
7. E - Bexley, Eltham and Woolwich
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Appendix
1. Anglican Parishes West
2. Anglican Parishes Central
3. Anglican Parishes South
4. Anglican Parishes East
4. Nonconformist and Catholic
This book has already been researched and is currently in production.
St. Giles Cripplegate was once amongst a network of narrow streets on the north side of the City, but after the war the church and its tower dating to 1684 became part of the modernist Barbican development.
St. Mary Woolnoth on the corner of Lombard Street survived the fire and remedial work was done, but uniquely for the City, Nicholas Hawksmoor and the Commission for Fifty Churches rebuilt the edifice in 1724. It was later the church of Rev. John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace.
St. John at Hackney was built in the Georgian style by James Spiller in 1797 with a Classical spire in 1814. It sits near the mediaeval tower of St. Augustine's and has naval links to John Hunter and Francis Beaufort.
A Huguenot church was opened in West Street in c.1700, but it became the first Methodist chapel in the West End in 1743, and a plaque records that John and Charles Wesley preached there. It was later converted to All Saints Anglican mission but is now restored as business premises.
This remarkable church called St. Peter's, Islington sits near the Regent's Canal and the original rectangular building was built by Charles Barry the architect of Parliament in 1835. However it was adorned by Roumieu and Gough with a stunning west façade and flying buttresses in 1843.
St. Mary Magdalene, Woodchester Street, Paddington also by the canal started as a mission to the slums, and George Edmund Street built his masterpiece on a restricted site in the German Perpendicular style from 1868-78. The old housing and street pattern was later cleared.
Park Walk Chapel had a long history being built by Chelsea Park in 1724, but Arthur Blomfield son of the bishop (who promoted church extension), designed St. Andrew's in the Decorated style on the site in 1913.
Christchurch a ragstone edifice with towering spire was built by Lee and Bury on Battersea Park Road in 1849. It was a local landmark but was destroyed during the blitz, and Thomas F. Ford who was prolific in the capital built a distinctive church with Egyptian side doors in 1959.
Blackheath, despite its proximity to Greenwich Park, came under the parish of Lewisham and the manor of the Earl of Dartmouth. It had no church but Benjamin Ferrey designed All Saints with its broach spire in 1867, which seemed like it had been there for centuries.
The nave of St. Alfege's, Greenwich collapsed and Nicholas Hawksmoor built a new one in 1715. A design for a steeple went to Limehouse, and the ancient tower was encased in Portland stone by John James in 1730. Several generations of the author's family had links to the church.
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