St. John's Church

Hyde Park

London, England

St. John's Church

London, England

"The  Cmmissioners for Building New Churches... asked  Charles  Fowler to draw up ... plans which he did expeditiously by 1829.  His plan for St John’s -- a 13th Century style Gothic church -- It took three years to build and on the 26th January 1832 the Lord Bishop of London, the Right Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Charles James Blomfield, consecrated St John’s Chapel, also known as the Connaught Chapel.uary 1832  It was designed to seat 1500, with 700 free seats and the rest rented – the pews in all churches used to be rented for annual charges.  The total pew rentals in St John’s, which were paid to the wardens to cover expenses, were valued at £681 a year.

                                      St. John's Church, London England

"The church as we know it today is not the one we would have seen in 1832 or even at the turn of the 20th Century. The interior was darker; it was lit with candles, then gas lamps, and finally electric lighting in the late 1800s. There was a triforium, or balcony over each of the side aisles as well as over the entrance. Between the wooden pews, there was a row of paired chairs going down the nave leading up to the chancel. St John’s had a capacity of 2,200 people with 1,500 subscription seats and 700 free seats in the triforium. The pulpit, with its spiral staircase, was in front of the left row of pews attached to the rood screen, now at the entrance of the church. The baptismal font was located at the northwest corner.  The high altar, from St Michael’s Star Street was originally in the north transept in front of the organ, which was The Lady Chapel until the reordering in 2011. 

"After the Second World War the parish and the church fell on hard times when the area became less desirable and people moved to the suburbs. The church was even occasionally closed between 1962 and 1965...

"In 2011 the old Victorian heating system was replaced and the pine pews (which came from America) were sold or auctioned off to raise funds for the beautiful new floor. The rood screen was relocated to the area behind the seating to create a narthex. Additional changes include the installation of toilets on the south side of the porch, while a much-needed kitchen was re-fitted on the north side. 

"St John’s has long had a strong association with music in London.  It employs eight choral scholars and an organ scholar per year, drawn from the best London conservatories." (Link.)

                                                 *******

Photos: Taken by Lina in 2020 while she was living and working in London, England.

Linc: https://www.stjohns-hydepark.com/moreaboutus/2016/7/21/history-of-st-johns-hyde-park

  

 

                        Catholic Church of St. Monica, Hoxton Square ,       

                                              London England

 Catholic Church of St. Monica

Hoxton Square, London England

Church Plaque

"Step inside our church on Hoxton Square, an oasis of calm tucked away in cutting edge cool Shoreditch. 

​

"Statues of St Augustine and St Monica stand to the left and right of the high altar, waiting to greet all visitors.

" 

"A grade II listed 19th century church built between 1864 - 1866, our building is an example of Edward Welby Pugin's work.

Sanctuary

"The outside of the church is distinctive of a typical Pugin design.  The description on historicengland.org.uk is apt - "... a rare surviving composition of church, school and priory by an important architect who here produced a cheap building that nevertheless has considerable distinction"

"To put the quote into context, the Pugin Society estimated that the cost of a typical unendowed urban church ranged between £3000 - £10000, depending the size and date of building. In contrast, the Cobh Cathedral, begun in 1867, cost £235000 by the time it was completed in 1915. (L"ink 1.)

Front Window of Church

"Saint Monica (c. 332 – 387 AD) was an earlyAfrican Christian saint and the mother of St. Augustine of Hippo. She is remembered and honored in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, albeit on different feast days, for her outstanding Christian virtues, particularly the suffering caused by her husband's adultery, and her prayerful life dedicated to the reformation of her son, who wrote extensively of her pious acts and life with her in his Confessions. Popular Christian legends recall Saint Monica weeping every night for her son Augustine " (Link 2.)

                                                    ****************

Photos: Taken by iPhone in December 2020 by Lina  whitle living and working in London, England. 

Link 1:  https://www.stmonicaschurchhoxton.org/about-us

Llink 2:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Monica

                                             

                                                                        Prayer

God, be with persecuted Christians throughout the world. Amen (SW.)

1. 

                       Parish Church of St. Dunstan and All Saints

INDEX

2020

London

-Parish Church of St. Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney, London,                                       Borough  of Tower Hamlets, Province of Canterbury,                                       February 2, 2020.

- St. Georges, Hanover Square, City of Westminster,                                                        London, England, December 6, 2020.

-St. Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, Knightsbridge,London,                                             November 29, 2020.

-St. Bride's Chirch, Fleet Street, City of London, England,                                              November 22, 2020.

-St. John's Church, L    London, England, September 9, 2020.

Westminster Cathedral, London, England,  March 8, 2020.

-San Fedele of Como  Catholic Church, Milan, Italy, February, 16, 2020.

-Esglesia de Santa Susanna, Catonia, Province of Barcelona, Spain,                            March 29, 2020.

-London- "Westminster Cathedral", 3/8/20.

Stepney[Lon0.don Borough of Tower Hamlets Province of Canterbury-"Parish Church of  St.   Dustan and All Saints", 2/2/20.

                                    

Spain 

 Girona Catonia- " Esglesia de Sant Pere  Church 
                                     Figures", 1/19/20.
Catonia, Province of Barcelona-" Esglesia de Santa 
                                      Susanna", 3/29/20.

Italy

   Milan-" San Fedele of Como  Catholic Church",

                                                       2/6/20.

,

St. Georges, Hanover Square

ST. GEORGES, HANOVER SQUARE

CITY OF WESTMINSTER

LONDON ENGLAND

Front Altar

"St George's, Hanover Square, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, central London, built in the early eighteenth century as part of a project to build fifty new churches around London (the Queen Anne Churches). The church was designed by John James; its site was donated by General William Steuart, who laid the first stone in 1721. The building is one small block south of Hanover Square, near Oxford Circus. Because of its location, it has frequently been the venue for society weddings.

Front Altar

"A civil parish of St George Hanover Square and an ecclesiastical parish were created in 1724 from part of the ancient parish of St Martin in the Fields

Side Aisle

"The land for the church was donated by General Sir William Steuart.^[2] The church was constructed in 1721–25, funded by the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches, and designed by John James,^[3] who had been one of the two surveyors to the commission since 1716.^[4] Its portico, supported by six Corinthian columns, projects across the pavement. There is a tower just behind the portico, rising from the roof above the west end of the nave.^[3]

The interior is divided into nave and aisles by piers, square up to the height of the galleries, then rising to the ceiling in the form of Corinthian columns. The nave has a barrel vault, and the aisles transverse barrel vaults.

Side Altar

" From its early days, the church was a fashionable place for wedding." (Link)

*******************

Photos: Taken in November 2020 by Richard Wilson while living and working in London, England.

Link-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_George%27s,_Hanover_Square,

                                                                           Prayer

God, be with persecuted Christians throughout the world. Amen (SW.)

St. Paul's Church, Knightsbridge

32 Wilton Place, Knightsbridge, London

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, KNIGHTSBRIDGE

KNIGHTSBRIDGE, lONDON

Side Windows

"The church was founded in 1843, the first in London to champion the ideals of the Oxford Movement, during the incumbency of the Reverend W. J. E. Bennett. The architect was Thomas Cundy the younger.^[2]

:American heiress Jennie Churchill married British aristocrat George Cornwallis-West in this church.^[3] Albert Basil Orme Wilberforce married his wife, Charlotte Langford, here in 1865.^[4]

"A memorial in St Paul's Church commemorates 52 members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry who died on active service in World War II, carrying out secret intelligence work for the Special Operations Executive in occupied countries as well as providing transport drivers for the ATS. It includes three holders of the George Cross.^[5]

"St Paul's sister-parish is the Church of St. Paul's, K street, in Washington, DC in the United States.

Center Aisle

]

"After the building's consecration in 1843 the chancel with its rood screen and striking reredos was added in 1892 by the noted church architect George Frederick Bodley who also decorated St Luke's Chapel, which stands in the place of a Lady Chapel to the south of the sanctuary; the Lady Chapel of St Paul's having been traditionally seen as being the church of St Mary's, Bourne Street.

"The tiled panels around the walls of the nave, created in the 1870s by Daniel Bell, depict scenes from the life of Jesus Christ. The Stations of the Cross that intersperse the tiled panels, painted in the early 1920s by Gerald Moira, show scenes from the Crucifixion story. The font dates from 1842 and is carved with biblical scenes from both the Old and New Testaments. There are statues of the Virgin and Child (1896) above the entrance to the Chapel, and of St Paul (1902) above the lectern.^[6]"(Link)

Baptismal Font

*********

Photos: Taken in November 2020 by Richard Wilson while living and 

                  working in London, England.

Link:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul%27s_Church,_Knightsbridge

                                                                           Prayer

God, be with persecuted Christians throughout the world. Amen (SW.)

                                       St.  Bride's Church,Door

ST. BRIDE'S CHURCH

FLEET STREET

CITY OF LONDON, ENGLAND

                   

                                                 Sanctuary, Center Aisle

"HE CHURCH of St Bride's is justly world famous. To enter its doors is to step into 2,000 years of history, which had begun with the Romans some six centuries before the name of St Bride, daughter of an Irish prince, even emerged from legend to become associated forever with the site.

Baptismal Font

"The story of St Bride's is inextricably woven into the history of the City of London. By the time the Great Fire of 1666 left the church in ruins, a succession of churches had existed on the site for about a millennium, and the area had already assumed its unique role in the emergence of English printing. It took nine years for St Bride's to re-appear from the ashes under the inspired direction of Christopher Wren, but for the next two-and-a-half centuries it was in the shadow of the church's unmistakeable wedding-cake spire that the rise of the British newspaper industry into the immensely-powerful Fourth Estate took place.

Side Pews

 

"Then, in 1940, St Bride's fell victim once again to flames as German incendiary bombs reduced Wren's architectural jewel to a roofless shell. This time 17 years elapsed before rebuilding was completed, although a series of important excavations in 1953 amid the skeletal ruins, led by the medieval archaeologist Professor W. F. Grimes, came up with extraordinary results, uncovering the foundations of all six previous churches on the site.

Interior

"Not only the nation, but the Christian world as a whole, was fascinated by the discovery."(Link)                       

                                                                             ************

Photos-Taken in November 2020  by Richard Wilson while living and  working in the UK on an ancestor's visa

LINK-http://stbrides.com/history/index.html

                                                                           Prayer

God, be with persecuted Christians throughout the world. Amen (SW.)

 

                                            St. John's Church

                                          Hyde Park Crescent

                                            Tybernia, London

St. John's Church

London, England

 "...Charles Fowler (1792 - 1867) .... dr(e)w up ... plans which he did expeditiously by 1829.  Fowler was a founder-member of the Institute of British Architects. His plan for St John’s -- a 13th Century style Gothic church --

St.John's Church

 "It took three years to build and on the 26th January 1832 the Lord Bishop of London, the Right Reverend and Right Honourable Dr Charles James Blomfield, consecrated St John’s Chapel, also known as the Connaught Chapel.  It was designed to seat 1500, with 700 free seats and the rest rented – the pews in all churches used to be rented for annual charges.  The total pew rentals in St John’s, which were paid to the wardens to cover expenses, were valued at £681 a year.

  "The church as we know it today is not the one we would have seen in 1832 or even at the turn of the 20th Century. The interior was darker; it was lit with candles, then gas lamps, and finally electric lighting in the late 1800s. There was a triforium, or balcony over each of the side aisles as well as over the entrance. Between the wooden pews, there was a row of paired chairs going down the nave leading up to the chancel. St John’s had a capacity of 2,200 people with 1,500 subscription seats and 700 free seats in the triforium. The pulpit, with its spiral staircase, was in front of the left row of pews attached to the rood screen, now at the entrance of the church. The baptismal font was located at the northwest corner.  The high altar, from St Michael’s Star Street was originally in the north transept in front of the organ, which was The Lady Chapel until the reordering in 2011. 

"In 2011 the old Victorian heating system was replaced and the pine pews (which came from America) were sold or auctioned off to raise funds for the beautiful new floor. The rood screen was relocated to the area behind the seating to create a narthex. Additional changes include the installation of toilets on the south side of the porch, while a much-needed kitchen was re-fitted on the north side.

St. John's Parish Hall

"St John’s has long had a strong association with music in London.  It employs eight choral scholars and an organ scholar per year, drawn from the best London conservatories." (Linc 2)

                                           *****

Photos: Taken  in August 2020 by Lina while living and working in London England.

Linc 1:  https://www.google.com/search?q=St.John%27s%20Church%2C%20London%20England

Linc 2: https://www.stjohns-hydepark.com/moreaboutus/2016/7/21/history-of-st-johns-hyde-park