St Stephen Walbrook
Encyclopedia
St Stephen, Walbrook is a small church in 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...

, part of the 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...

's Diocese of London
Diocese of London
The Anglican Diocese of London forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England.Historically the diocese covered a large area north of the Thames and bordered the dioceses of Norwich and Lincoln to the north and west. The present diocese covers and 17 London boroughs, covering most of Greater...

. It is located in Walbrook, next to the Mansion House
Mansion House, London
Mansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of London in London, England. It is used for some of the City of London's official functions, including an annual dinner, hosted by the Lord Mayor, at which the Chancellor of the Exchequer customarily gives a speech – his...

, and near to Bank and Monument Underground stations
Bank and Monument stations
Bank and Monument are interlinked London Underground and Docklands Light Railway stations that form a public transport complex spanning the length of King William Street in the City of London. Bank station, named after the Bank of England, opened in 1900 and is served by the Central, Northern and...

.

History

In the second century A.D. a temple of Mithras stood on the bank of the River Walbrook, a stream running across London from the City Wall near Moorfields to the Thames. The foundations of this temple were discovered when Bucklersbury House was built in 1953-1957, and they are preserved to this day.

A Saxon church of the 7th century stood on this site and the River Walbrook is now culverted beneath it. It originally stood on the west bank of the River Walbrook, but was rebuilt around 1439 on the east side. The 15th century building, destroyed in the Great Fire of London
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...

 of 1666, contained a memorial to the English composer John Dunstaple. The wording of the epitaph had been recorded in the early 17th century, and was reinstated in the church in 1904, some 450 years after his death.

In 1670, St Benet Sherehog
St Benet Sherehog
St Benet Sherehog, additionally dedicated to St Osyth, was a medieval church built before the year 1111, situated at No. 1 Poultry in Cordwainer Ward, in the then wool-dealing district of the City of London. It was one of the 86 churches destroyed in the Great Fire of London, and it was not...

 was merged.

The current church was built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1672-80, following the 15th century building's destruction in the Great Fire
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...

. The 63 feet high dome is based on Wren's original design for 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...

, and this is centred over a square of twelve columns. The circular base of the dome is not carried, in the conventional way, by pendentive
Pendentive
A pendentive is a constructive device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to points at the bottom and spread at the top to establish the continuous circular or...

s formed above the arches of the square, but on a circle formed by eight arches that spring from eight of the twelve columns, cutting across each corner in the manner of the Byzantine
Byzantine architecture
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...

 squinch
Squinch
A squinch in architecture is a construction filling in the upper angles of a square room so as to form a base to receive an octagonal or spherical dome...

. This all contributes to create what many consider to be one of Wren's finest church interiors. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...

 lists it as one of the ten most important buildings in England.

It suffered slight damage from German bombers
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 during the London Blitz of 1941 and was later restored. In 1954, St Mary Bothaw
St Mary Bothaw
A former church in the City of London also referred to as St Mary by the Erber.The Mortality Bill for the year 1665, published by the Parish Clerk’s Company, shows 97 parishes within the City of London. By 6 September the city lay in ruins, 86 churches having been destroyed...

 and St Swithin London Stone (merged in 1670) were merged.

Nowadays, its claims to fame include:
  • Henry Moore
    Henry Moore
    Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....

    's controversial massive white polished stone altar, commissioned by churchwarden Lord Palumbo and installed in 1987, which stands unusually in the centre of the church, as allowed by a rare judgment of the Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved
    Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved
    The Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved is an appellate court within the hierarchy of ecclesiastical courts of the Church of England. Hearing cases involving church doctrine, ceremony, or ritual, the Court has jurisdiction over both the Province of Canterbury and the Province of York...

    .
  • A telephone in a glass box, a tribute to the founding of the Samaritans
    Samaritans (charity)
    Samaritans is a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress or at risk of suicide throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland, often through their telephone helpline. The name comes from the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan, though the organisation...

     at the church by the rector, Dr Chad Varah
    Chad Varah
    Reverend Prebendary Edward Chad Varah, CH, CBE was a British Anglican priest. He is best remembered as the founder of The Samaritans, established in 1953 as the world's first crisis hotline organisation, offering non-religious telephone support to those contemplating suicide.-Life:Varah was born...

    , in 1953. This voluntary organisation began with this telephone, and today staffs a 24-hour telephone hot-line for people in emotional need. The first Samaritans branch (known as Central London Branch) operated from a crypt beneath the church before moving to Marshall Street in Soho
    Soho
    Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...

    .
  • A painting on the left wall by Benjamin West
    Benjamin West
    Benjamin West, RA was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence...

    , titled Burial of St Stephen.


The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.

Gallery

The nearest London Underground station is Bank.

See also


External links

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