St Clement Eastcheap
Encyclopedia
St. Clement Eastcheap
is a Church of England
parish church
in Candlewick Ward of the City of London
. It is located on Clement's Lane, off King William Street
, and close to London Bridge
and the River Thames
.
Clement
was a disciple of St. Peter the Apostle
, and ordained Bishop of Rome in the year 93AD
. By tradition, Clement was martyred by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the Black Sea
, which led to his adoption as a patron saint of sailors. The dedication to St. Clement
is unusual in London. with only one other ancient church there dedicated to this saint, namely St Clement Danes, Westminster
. It too is located a little north of the Thames, but further west from Eastcheap and outside the old City boundary, just beyond the Temple Bar
on the Strand
.
was one of the main streets of medieval London. The name 'Eastcheap' derives from the Saxon word 'cheap', meaning a market, and Eastcheap was so called to distinguish it from Westcheap, later to become Cheapside
. The southern end of Clement's Lane opened onto Eastcheap until the 1880s when the construction of King William Street separated Clement's Lane from Eastcheap, which still remains nearby as a street.
The church's dedication to a Roman patron saint of sailors, the martyr Bishop Clement, coupled with its location near to what were historically the bustling wharves of Roman London
, hints at a much earlier Roman origin. Indeed Roman remains were once found in Clement's Lane, comprising walls 3 feet thick and made of flints at a depth of 12–15 feet together with tessellated pavements.
A charter of 1067 given by William I
(1028–87) to Westminster Abbey
mentions a church of St. Clement, which is possibly St. Clement Eastcheap, but the earliest definite reference to the church is found in a deed written in the reign of Henry III
(1207–72), which mentions 'St Clement Candlewickstrate'. Other early documents refer to the church as "St Clement in Candlewystrate", 'St Clement the Little by Estchepe' and 'St Clement in Lumbard Street'. Until the dissolution of the monasteries
- during the reign of Henry VIII
- the parish was in the 'gift' of the Abbot
of Westminster, then patronage of the parish passed to the Bishop of London
. Now the patronage alternates with the appointment of each successive new parish priest (Rector
), between the Bishop of London and the Dean
and Chapter of St Paul's
.
According to the London historian John Strype
(1643–1737) St. Clement's church was repaired and beautified in 1630 and 1633.
In 1666 the church was destroyed by the Great Fire of London
, and then rebuilt in the 1680s. According to Strype the rebuilt church was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and this would seem to be confirmed by the fact that in the parish account for 1685 there is the following item: To one third of a hogshead of wine, given to Sir Christopher Wren, £4 2s.
In 1670, during the re-building of London that followed the fire, the parish was combined with that of St Martin Orgar
, which lay on the south side of Eastcheap. At the same time the City planners sought to appropriate a strip of land from the west of St Clement's property to widen Clement's Lane. This led to a dispute with the parish authorities, who claimed that the proposed plan left too little room to accommodate the families of the newly-combined parishes. The matter was resolved by permitting the addition of a 14 ft. building plot, formerly occupied by the churchyard, to the east of the church. It was not until 1683, however, that building of the church began, and was completed in 1687 at a total cost of £4,365.
In May 1840 John Carlos wrote in The Gentleman's Magazine
to protest about the proposed demolition of St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange
and St. Benet Fink
, following a fire in 1838 that had razed the Royal Exchange
and damaged those two churches. In his article, Carlos referred to earlier plans to reduce the number of City churches, from which we learn that in the 1830s St Clement's had been under threat of demolition.
While St Clement's was spared, the 19th century saw many other City churches being destroyed, particularly following the Union of Benefices Act (1860), which sought to speed-up the reduction in the number of City parishes as a response to rapidly declining congregations; the result of the resident population moving in ever larger numbers from cramped City conditions to the more spacious suburbs.
In 1872 William Butterfield
, a prominent architect of the gothic-revival
, substantially renovated St. Clement's to conform with the contemporary Anglican 'High Church
' taste. The renovation involved:
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In 1933 the architect Sir Ninian Comper
revised Butterfield's layout, moving the organ to its original position on the west wall and reassembling the reredos behind the altar, although before he did so, he had the reredos painted with figures in blue and gold.
St. Clement's suffered minor damage from bombing by German aircraft during the London Blitz in 1940 during the Second World War. The damage was repaired in 1949-50, and in 1968 the church was again redecorated.
Today St. Clement's holds weekly services and, since 1998, it has been the base of The Players of St Peter, an amateur theatre company devoted to performing medieval mystery play
s in the church, around early December each year.
A number of charities have their administrative offices at St Clement's including the Cure Parkinson's Trust.
Although nearby St Martin Orgar had been left in ruins by the Great Fire, the tower survived and, following the unification of the parish with St Clement's, the St Martin's site was used by French Huguenot
s who restored the tower and worshiped there until 1820. Later in the decade the ruins of the body of St Martin's church were removed to make way for the widening of Cannon Street, but the tower remained until 1851 when it was taken down, and – curiously – replaced with a new tower. The new tower served as a rectory for St. Clement Eastcheap until it was sold and converted into offices in the 1970s; it still survives on the present-day St. Martin's Lane.
. So too does St. Clement Danes church, Westminster, whose bells ring out the traditional tune of the nursery rhyme
three times a day.
There is a canard that the earliest mention of the rhyme occurs in Wynkyn de Worde
's "The demaundes joyous" printed in 1511. This small volume consists entirely of riddles and makes no allusion to bells, St. Clement or any other church.
According to Iona and Peter Opie
, the earliest record of the rhyme only dates to c.1744, although there is a square dance (without words) called 'Oranges and Limons' in the 3rd edition of John Playford
's The English Dancing Master, published in 1665.
St. Clement Eastcheap's claim is based on the assertion that it was close to the wharf where citrus fruit was unloaded. Yet, a perusal of a map of London shows that there were many churches, even after the Fire, that were closer to the Thames than St. Clement's (St. George Botolph Lane
, St Magnus the Martyr, St. Michael, Crooked Lane
, St Martin Orgar
, St Mary-at-Hill
, All Hallows the Great. All these would have been passed by a load of oranges and lemons making its way to Leadenhall Market
, the nearest market where citrus fruit was sold, passing several more churches on the way. Thus, it would appear that the name of St. Clements was selected by the rhymer simply for its consonance with the word ‘lemons’, and it now seems more likely that the melody called ‘Oranges and Limons’ predates the rhyme itself.
is approximately rectangular, but the south aisle is severely tapered. The ceiling is divided into panels, the centre one being a large oval band of fruit and flowers. The main façade is on the west, on Clement's Lane, and comprises four bays.
The main bay has a blocked pedimented round-headed window over the door. This is flanked by matching bays with two levels of windows. The tower to the south west forms the fourth bay. This is a simple square tower, with a parapet, but no spire. Each bay has stone quoins and is stuccoed, except for the upper levels of the tower where the brick is exposed.
A small churchyard remains to the east of St. Clement's hemmed-in by the backs of office buildings and contains tombstones whose inscriptions have, over time, become illegible. The churchyard is approached by a narrow alley along the church's north wall, at the entrance of which is a memorial plaque to Dositej Obradović
, a Serbian scholar who lived next to the church.
In July 1645, so it is said, the poet John Milton
was reconciled with his estranged wife Mary Powell, in the house of a Mrs Weber, a widow, in St Clement's churchyard where Mary was then lodging. Milton's description in Paradise Lost
of the reconciliation of Adam and Eve draws, apparently, on the real life reconciliation between Milton and his wife.
The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.
The present organ's oak case is the same one made to enclose the organ that was built for St Clement's in 1696, probably by Renatus Harris
who maintained the instrument until 1704. While the case has remained largely intact, the organ itself has been variously rebuilt and restored; in 1704 by Christian Smith, and in 1711 by Abraham Jordan (c.1666–1716)—who it is thought added the swell organ to the two manual instrument. From 1838 the organ was in the care of Messrs Gray and Davison
, who in 1872—as part of the renovation of the building—moved the organ from the west gallery to the south aisle. Care of the organ was transferred to Henry Wedlake that same year. In 1889 he rebuilt the instrument. Further work was undertaken in 1926 by Messrs J. W. Walker
, and in 1936 by Messrs Hill, Norman and Beard, whew the instrument was moved back to an approximation of its original west-end location. The same company overhauled the organ in 1946, and in 1971 made 'neo-baroque' tonal revisions, which remain to this day. The instrument was last cleaned and repaired in 2004 by Colin Jilks of Sittingbourne
, Kent
.
The first known organist:
The current organist (September 2008) is Ian Shaw.
. The outer panels depict the Annunciation
while the central panel shows St. Clement and St. Martin of Tours, (the dedicatee of St. Martin Orgar).
The pulpit also dates from the 17th-century, and is made from Norwegian oak, topped with an hexagonal sounding board, with a dancing cherub on each corner.
Surviving from the 1872 Butterfield renovation are the polychrome floor and three stained-glass clerestory windows on the north wall. The windows were made by W. G. Taylor, and installed c.1887 during the last phase of Butterfield's work. The windows show SS. Andrew, James (major), James (minor), Peter, Mathias, and Thomas.
.jpg)
While the marble font can be seen, its wooden cover is not always on public display. The cover's ornate decoration, a carved dove holding an olive branch surrounded with gilded flames, so delighted William Gladstone
, it is said, that he took his grandchildren to see it.
(1608–61), then living in London, gave a series of sermons at St Clement's in 1647.
The diarist John Evelyn
heard John Pearson (1613–86), later to be Bishop of Chester, preaching at St Clement's where he was the weekly preacher from 1654. His sermons there later became his An Exposition of the Creed (1659), which he dedicated "to the right worshipful and well-beloved, the parishioners of St. Clement's, Eastcheap."
One of the rectors of St. Clement's, Dr. Benjamin Stone, who had been presented to the living by Bishop Juxon
, being deemed "too Popish" by Oliver Cromwell
, was imprisoned for some time at Crosby Hall. From thence he was sent to Plymouth
, where, after paying a fine of £60, he obtained his liberty. Stone recovered his benefice on the restoration of Charles II
but died five years after. (Thornbury, volume 1)
In this church Josias Alsopp, who had succeeeded Stone as Rector in the early Restoraion years of the 17th century, was heard preaching by Samuel Pepys
who noted the following in his diary for 24 November 1661:
Among the mural tablets in the church are three which have been erected at the cost of the parishioners, commemorative of the Rev. Thomas Green, curate twenty-seven years, who died in 1734; the Rev. John Farrer, Rector, who died in 1820; and the Rev. W. Valentine Ireson, who was lecturer of the united parishes thirty years, and died in 1822.
The churchwardens are John Holt and George Andrews. The church is presently in interregnum.
Eastcheap
Eastcheap is a street in the City of London. Its name derives from cheap, market, with the prefix "East" distinguishing it from the other former City of London market of Westcheap . In medieval times Eastcheap was the City's main meat market, with butchers' stalls lining both sides of the street...
is a Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
in Candlewick Ward of the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
. It is located on Clement's Lane, off King William Street
King William Street
King William Street may refer to:*King William Street, Adelaide - the central boulevard of Adelaide*King William Street - a street in Central Hamilton*King William Street - a street in London...
, and close to London Bridge
London Bridge
London Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames, connecting the City of London and Southwark, in central London. Situated between Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Tower Bridge, it forms the western end of the Pool of London...
and the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
.
Clement
Pope Clement I
Starting in the 3rd and 4th century, tradition has identified him as the Clement that Paul mentioned in Philippians as a fellow laborer in Christ.While in the mid-19th century it was customary to identify him as a freedman of Titus Flavius Clemens, who was consul with his cousin, the Emperor...
was a disciple of St. Peter the Apostle
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
, and ordained Bishop of Rome in the year 93AD
93
Year 93 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Pompeius and Priscinus...
. By tradition, Clement was martyred by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, which led to his adoption as a patron saint of sailors. The dedication to St. Clement
Pope Clement
There have been fourteen popes named Clement.*Pope Clement I saint, *Pope Clement II *Pope Clement III *Pope Clement IV...
is unusual in London. with only one other ancient church there dedicated to this saint, namely St Clement Danes, Westminster
City of Westminster
The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...
. It too is located a little north of the Thames, but further west from Eastcheap and outside the old City boundary, just beyond the Temple Bar
Temple Bar, London
Temple Bar is the barrier marking the westernmost extent of the City of London on the road to Westminster, where Fleet Street becomes the Strand...
on the Strand
Strand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...
.
History
EastcheapEastcheap
Eastcheap is a street in the City of London. Its name derives from cheap, market, with the prefix "East" distinguishing it from the other former City of London market of Westcheap . In medieval times Eastcheap was the City's main meat market, with butchers' stalls lining both sides of the street...
was one of the main streets of medieval London. The name 'Eastcheap' derives from the Saxon word 'cheap', meaning a market, and Eastcheap was so called to distinguish it from Westcheap, later to become Cheapside
Cheapside
Cheapside is a street in the City of London that links Newgate Street with the junction of Queen Victoria Street and Mansion House Street. To the east is Mansion House, the Bank of England, and the major road junction above Bank tube station. To the west is St. Paul's Cathedral, St...
. The southern end of Clement's Lane opened onto Eastcheap until the 1880s when the construction of King William Street separated Clement's Lane from Eastcheap, which still remains nearby as a street.
The church's dedication to a Roman patron saint of sailors, the martyr Bishop Clement, coupled with its location near to what were historically the bustling wharves of Roman London
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
, hints at a much earlier Roman origin. Indeed Roman remains were once found in Clement's Lane, comprising walls 3 feet thick and made of flints at a depth of 12–15 feet together with tessellated pavements.
A charter of 1067 given by William I
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
(1028–87) to Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
mentions a church of St. Clement, which is possibly St. Clement Eastcheap, but the earliest definite reference to the church is found in a deed written in the reign of Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
(1207–72), which mentions 'St Clement Candlewickstrate'. Other early documents refer to the church as "St Clement in Candlewystrate", 'St Clement the Little by Estchepe' and 'St Clement in Lumbard Street'. Until the dissolution of the monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
- during the reign of Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
- the parish was in the 'gift' of the Abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
of Westminster, then patronage of the parish passed to the Bishop of London
Bishop of London
The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...
. Now the patronage alternates with the appointment of each successive new parish priest (Rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
), between the Bishop of London and the Dean
Dean (religion)
A dean, in a church context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.-Anglican Communion:...
and Chapter of St Paul's
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
.
According to the London historian John Strype
John Strype
John Strype was an English historian and biographer. He was a cousin of Robert Knox, a famous sailor.Born in Houndsditch, London, he was the son of John Strype, or van Stryp, a member of a Huguenot family whom, in order to escape religious persecution within Brabant, had settled in East London...
(1643–1737) St. Clement's church was repaired and beautified in 1630 and 1633.
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...
, and then rebuilt in the 1680s. According to Strype the rebuilt church was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and this would seem to be confirmed by the fact that in the parish account for 1685 there is the following item: To one third of a hogshead of wine, given to Sir Christopher Wren, £4 2s.
In 1670, during the re-building of London that followed the fire, the parish was combined with that of St Martin Orgar
St Martin Orgar
St Martin Orgar was a church in the City of London in Martin Lane, off Cannon Street, most famous as being one of the churches mentioned in the nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons". Most of the building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, but the tower and part of the nave were left...
, which lay on the south side of Eastcheap. At the same time the City planners sought to appropriate a strip of land from the west of St Clement's property to widen Clement's Lane. This led to a dispute with the parish authorities, who claimed that the proposed plan left too little room to accommodate the families of the newly-combined parishes. The matter was resolved by permitting the addition of a 14 ft. building plot, formerly occupied by the churchyard, to the east of the church. It was not until 1683, however, that building of the church began, and was completed in 1687 at a total cost of £4,365.
The Gentleman's Magazine
The Gentleman's Magazine was founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term "magazine" for a periodical...
to protest about the proposed demolition of St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange
St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange
St. Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange was a church in the City of London located on Bartholomew Lane, off Threadneedle Street. Recorded since the 13th century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, then rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. The rebuilt church was demolished in...
and St. Benet Fink
St. Benet Fink
St. Benet Fink was a church in the City of London located on what is now Threadneedle Street. Recorded since the 13th century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, then rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. The rebuilt church was demolished between 1841 and...
, following a fire in 1838 that had razed the Royal Exchange
Royal Exchange (London)
The Royal Exchange in the City of London was founded in 1565 by Sir Thomas Gresham to act as a centre of commerce for the city. The site was provided by the City of London Corporation and the Worshipful Company of Mercers, and is trapezoidal, flanked by the converging streets of Cornhill and...
and damaged those two churches. In his article, Carlos referred to earlier plans to reduce the number of City churches, from which we learn that in the 1830s St Clement's had been under threat of demolition.
The sweeping design of destroying a number of City churches was mediated in … 1834, and for the time arrested by the resolute opposition to the measure in the instance of the first church marked out for sacrifice, St. Clement Eastcheap, it may be feared is at length coming into full operation, not, indeed in the open manner in which it was displayed at that period, but in an insidious and more secure mode of procedure.
While St Clement's was spared, the 19th century saw many other City churches being destroyed, particularly following the Union of Benefices Act (1860), which sought to speed-up the reduction in the number of City parishes as a response to rapidly declining congregations; the result of the resident population moving in ever larger numbers from cramped City conditions to the more spacious suburbs.
In 1872 William Butterfield
William Butterfield
William Butterfield was a Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement . He is noted for his use of polychromy-Biography:...
, a prominent architect of the gothic-revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
, substantially renovated St. Clement's to conform with the contemporary Anglican 'High Church
High church
The term "High Church" refers to beliefs and practices of ecclesiology, liturgy and theology, generally with an emphasis on formality, and resistance to "modernization." Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term has traditionally been principally associated with the...
' taste. The renovation involved:
- removing the galleries
- replacing the 17th-century plain windows with stained glass
- dividing the reredos into 3 pieces and placing the two wings on the side walls
- dismantling the woodwork to build new pews
- laying down polychrome tiles on the floor
- moving the organ into the aisle
Ninian Comper
Sir John Ninian Comper was a Scottish-born architect. He was one of the last of the great Gothic Revival architects, noted for his churches and their furnishings...
revised Butterfield's layout, moving the organ to its original position on the west wall and reassembling the reredos behind the altar, although before he did so, he had the reredos painted with figures in blue and gold.
St. Clement's suffered minor damage from bombing by German aircraft during the London Blitz in 1940 during the Second World War. The damage was repaired in 1949-50, and in 1968 the church was again redecorated.
Today St. Clement's holds weekly services and, since 1998, it has been the base of The Players of St Peter, an amateur theatre company devoted to performing medieval mystery play
Mystery play
Mystery plays and miracle plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song...
s in the church, around early December each year.
Although nearby St Martin Orgar had been left in ruins by the Great Fire, the tower survived and, following the unification of the parish with St Clement's, the St Martin's site was used by French Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
s who restored the tower and worshiped there until 1820. Later in the decade the ruins of the body of St Martin's church were removed to make way for the widening of Cannon Street, but the tower remained until 1851 when it was taken down, and – curiously – replaced with a new tower. The new tower served as a rectory for St. Clement Eastcheap until it was sold and converted into offices in the 1970s; it still survives on the present-day St. Martin's Lane.
Oranges and Lemons
St. Clement Eastcheap considers itself to be the church referred to in the nursery rhyme that begins Oranges and lemons / Ring the bells of St. Clement'sOranges and Lemons
"Oranges and Lemons" is an English nursery rhyme and singing game which refers to the bells of several churches, all within or close to the City of London. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as #3190.-Lyrics:Common modern versions include:...
. So too does St. Clement Danes church, Westminster, whose bells ring out the traditional tune of the nursery rhyme
Nursery rhyme
The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
three times a day.
There is a canard that the earliest mention of the rhyme occurs in Wynkyn de Worde
Wynkyn de Worde
Wynkyn de Worde was a printer and publisher in London known for his work with William Caxton, and is recognized as the first to popularize the products of the printing press in England....
's "The demaundes joyous" printed in 1511. This small volume consists entirely of riddles and makes no allusion to bells, St. Clement or any other church.
According to Iona and Peter Opie
Peter and Iona Opie
Iona Archibald Opie and Peter Mason Opie were a husband-and-wife team of folklorists, who applied modern techniques to children's literature, summarized in their studies, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes and The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren...
, the earliest record of the rhyme only dates to c.1744, although there is a square dance (without words) called 'Oranges and Limons' in the 3rd edition of John Playford
John Playford
John Playford was a London bookseller, publisher, minor composer, and member of the Stationers' Company, who published books on music theory, instruction books for several instruments, and psalters with tunes for singing in churches...
's The English Dancing Master, published in 1665.
St. Clement Eastcheap's claim is based on the assertion that it was close to the wharf where citrus fruit was unloaded. Yet, a perusal of a map of London shows that there were many churches, even after the Fire, that were closer to the Thames than St. Clement's (St. George Botolph Lane
St. George Botolph Lane
St. George Botolph Lane was a church off Eastcheap, in the ward of Billingsgate in the City of London. The rear of the church overlooked Pudding Lane, where the fire of London started. It was first recorded in the twelfth century, and destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. It was one of the 51...
, St Magnus the Martyr, St. Michael, Crooked Lane
St. Michael, Crooked Lane
Coordinates: St Michael, Crooked Lane was an “antient” parish church situated on the east side of Miles' Lane, Great Eastcheap in Candlewick Ward in the City of London. It was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London by Sir Christopher Wren and demolished in 1831.-History:The church was in existence...
, St Martin Orgar
St Martin Orgar
St Martin Orgar was a church in the City of London in Martin Lane, off Cannon Street, most famous as being one of the churches mentioned in the nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons". Most of the building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, but the tower and part of the nave were left...
, St Mary-at-Hill
St Mary-at-Hill
St. Mary-at-Hill is a Church of England church on Lovat Lane, a cobbled street off Eastcheap in the ward of Billingsgate, London, England. Rebuilt many times, St Mary-at-Hill was originally founded in the 12th Century, where it was first known as "St. Mary de Hull" or " St...
, All Hallows the Great. All these would have been passed by a load of oranges and lemons making its way to Leadenhall Market
Leadenhall Market
Leadenhall Market is a covered market in the City of London, located at Gracechurch Street but with vehicular access also available via Whittington Avenue to the north and Lime Street to the south and east and additional pedestrian access via a number of narrow passageways.-History:The market dates...
, the nearest market where citrus fruit was sold, passing several more churches on the way. Thus, it would appear that the name of St. Clements was selected by the rhymer simply for its consonance with the word ‘lemons’, and it now seems more likely that the melody called ‘Oranges and Limons’ predates the rhyme itself.
The building
St. Clement Eastcheap has an irregular plan. The naveNave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
is approximately rectangular, but the south aisle is severely tapered. The ceiling is divided into panels, the centre one being a large oval band of fruit and flowers. The main façade is on the west, on Clement's Lane, and comprises four bays.
A small churchyard remains to the east of St. Clement's hemmed-in by the backs of office buildings and contains tombstones whose inscriptions have, over time, become illegible. The churchyard is approached by a narrow alley along the church's north wall, at the entrance of which is a memorial plaque to Dositej Obradović
Dositej Obradovic
Dositej Dimitrije Obradović was a Serbian author, philosopher, linguist, polyglot and the first minister of education of Serbia...
, a Serbian scholar who lived next to the church.
In July 1645, so it is said, the poet John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
was reconciled with his estranged wife Mary Powell, in the house of a Mrs Weber, a widow, in St Clement's churchyard where Mary was then lodging. Milton's description in Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
of the reconciliation of Adam and Eve draws, apparently, on the real life reconciliation between Milton and his wife.
She, not repulsed, with tears that ceased not flowing,
And tresses all disordered, at his feet
Fell humble, and, embracing them, besought
His peace.
[...]
Soon his heart relented
Towards her, his life so late, and sole delight,
Now to his feet submissive in distress.
The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.
The organ
Renatus Harris
Renatus Harris was a master organ maker in England in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.During the period of the Commonwealth, in the mid seventeenth century, Puritans controlled the country and organ music was banned in churches. Many organ makers left England for the continent,...
who maintained the instrument until 1704. While the case has remained largely intact, the organ itself has been variously rebuilt and restored; in 1704 by Christian Smith, and in 1711 by Abraham Jordan (c.1666–1716)—who it is thought added the swell organ to the two manual instrument. From 1838 the organ was in the care of Messrs Gray and Davison
Gray and Davison
Gray & Davison was a large-scale manufacturer of church and cathedral pipe organs, based in London. The company was active between 1841–1973 and had its heyday between 1905–1930....
, who in 1872—as part of the renovation of the building—moved the organ from the west gallery to the south aisle. Care of the organ was transferred to Henry Wedlake that same year. In 1889 he rebuilt the instrument. Further work was undertaken in 1926 by Messrs J. W. Walker
J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd
J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd is a British firm of organ builders established in 1828 by Joseph William Walker in London. Walker organs were popular additions to churches during the Gothic Revival era of church building and restoration in Victorian Britain, and instruments built by Walker are found in...
, and in 1936 by Messrs Hill, Norman and Beard, whew the instrument was moved back to an approximation of its original west-end location. The same company overhauled the organ in 1946, and in 1971 made 'neo-baroque' tonal revisions, which remain to this day. The instrument was last cleaned and repaired in 2004 by Colin Jilks of Sittingbourne
Sittingbourne
Sittingbourne is an industrial town about eight miles east of Gillingham in England, beside the Roman Watling Street off a creek in the Swale, a channel separating the Isle of Sheppey from mainland Kent...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
.
Organists
- Henry Lightindollar (d.1702), appeared in the parish records in 1699. Successive organists were as follows:
- William Gorton, a member of the King's Music (appt. 1702, d. 1711)
- Edward PurcellEdward Purcell (musician)Edward Purcell was born in Westminster, London, the only surviving son of the English Baroque master, Henry Purcell. When his mother Frances died in February 1706, she stated in her will, and apparently in accordance with her husband's wishes, that she had given him a good education.Holman, Peter,...
, son of Henry PurcellHenry PurcellHenry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
(b. 1689, appt. 1711, d. 1740, and buried in St Clements "near the gallery door" - Parish Burial Register, 4 July 1740) - Edward Henry PurcellEdward Henry PurcellEdward Henry Purcell , organist, printer, and music publisher, was the son of Edward Purcell, and grandson of the English Baroque master, Henry Purcell. He was a chorister in the Chapel Royal in 1737...
, Edward's son (appt.1740, d.1765, and also buried in the church "by the organ gallery" - Parish Burial Register, 5 August 1765) - Jonathan BattishillJonathan BattishillJonathan Battishill was an English composer, keyboard player, and concert tenor. He began his career as a composer writing theatre music but later devoted himself to working as an organist and composer for the Church of England...
(b. 1738, appt. 1765, d.1801) - Thomas Bartholomew (appt. 1802, d. 1819)
- William Bradley (appt. 1819, res. 1828)
- John Whitaker, a City music publisher, (appt. 1828, d. 1847)
- John Joff, promoted from assistant organist (appt. 1847, d. 1885).
The current organist (September 2008) is Ian Shaw.
Furnishings
The altar, with cherubs for legs, dates from the 17th century, as does the reredos, which was decorated during the 1930s restoration of the building in a style reminiscent of Simone MartiniSimone Martini
Simone Martini was an Italian painter born in Siena.He was a major figure in the development of early Italian painting and greatly influenced the development of the International Gothic style....
. The outer panels depict the Annunciation
Annunciation
The Annunciation, also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary or Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the announcement by the angel Gabriel to Virgin Mary, that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus the Son of God. Gabriel told Mary to name her...
while the central panel shows St. Clement and St. Martin of Tours, (the dedicatee of St. Martin Orgar).
The pulpit also dates from the 17th-century, and is made from Norwegian oak, topped with an hexagonal sounding board, with a dancing cherub on each corner.
Surviving from the 1872 Butterfield renovation are the polychrome floor and three stained-glass clerestory windows on the north wall. The windows were made by W. G. Taylor, and installed c.1887 during the last phase of Butterfield's work. The windows show SS. Andrew, James (major), James (minor), Peter, Mathias, and Thomas.
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
, it is said, that he took his grandchildren to see it.
Clergy
The clergyman Thomas FullerThomas Fuller
Thomas Fuller was an English churchman and historian. He is now remembered for his writings, particularly his Worthies of England, published after his death...
(1608–61), then living in London, gave a series of sermons at St Clement's in 1647.
The diarist John Evelyn
John Evelyn
John Evelyn was an English writer, gardener and diarist.Evelyn's diaries or Memoirs are largely contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys, and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February...
heard John Pearson (1613–86), later to be Bishop of Chester, preaching at St Clement's where he was the weekly preacher from 1654. His sermons there later became his An Exposition of the Creed (1659), which he dedicated "to the right worshipful and well-beloved, the parishioners of St. Clement's, Eastcheap."
One of the rectors of St. Clement's, Dr. Benjamin Stone, who had been presented to the living by Bishop Juxon
William Juxon
William Juxon was an English churchman, Bishop of London from 1633 to 1649 and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1660 until his death.-Life:...
, being deemed "too Popish" by Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
, was imprisoned for some time at Crosby Hall. From thence he was sent to Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
, where, after paying a fine of £60, he obtained his liberty. Stone recovered his benefice on the restoration of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
but died five years after. (Thornbury, volume 1)
In this church Josias Alsopp, who had succeeeded Stone as Rector in the early Restoraion years of the 17th century, was heard preaching by Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
who noted the following in his diary for 24 November 1661:
Up early, and by appointment to St. Clement lanes to church, and there to meet Captain Cocke, who had often commended Mr. Alsopp, their minister, to me, who is indeed an able man, but as all things else did not come up to my expectations. His text was that all good and perfect gifts are from above.
Among the mural tablets in the church are three which have been erected at the cost of the parishioners, commemorative of the Rev. Thomas Green, curate twenty-seven years, who died in 1734; the Rev. John Farrer, Rector, who died in 1820; and the Rev. W. Valentine Ireson, who was lecturer of the united parishes thirty years, and died in 1822.
The churchwardens are John Holt and George Andrews. The church is presently in interregnum.
See also
- List of churches and cathedrals of London
- List of Christopher Wren churches in London
External links
- Parish Information from the Diocese of London Directory
- Services at St Clement Eastcheap from Friends of the City Churches
- Inhabitants of London in 1638 St. Clement’s, Eastcheap, edited from Ms.272 in Lambeth PalaceLambeth PalaceLambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury in England. It is located in Lambeth, on the south bank of the River Thames a short distance upstream of the Palace of Westminster on the opposite shore. It was acquired by the archbishopric around 1200...
Library by T. C. Dale (1931) - Four Shillings In The Pound Aid 1693-1694, City of London, Candlewick Ward, St Clements Eastcheap Precinct, data created by Derek Keene, Peter Earle, Craig Spence and Janet Barnes (1992)
- Players of St Peter, medieval mystery plays in the City of London
- The Foundation for Public Service Interpreting
- The Cure Parkinson's Trust