St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate | |
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51°31′0.15″N0°4′53.96″W / 51.5167083°N 0.0816556°W | |
Country | United Kingdom |
Denomination | Church of England and Antiochian Orthodox Church |
Previous denomination | Roman Catholicism |
Architecture | |
Heritage designation | Grade II* |
Administration | |
Diocese | London |
Clergy | |
Rector | David Armstrong |
St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate is a Church of England church in the Bishopsgate Without area of the City of London, and also, by virtue of lying outside the city's (now demolished) eastern walls, part of London's East End.
Adjoining the buildings is a substantial churchyard – running along the back of Wormwood Street, the former course of London Wall – and a former school. [1] The church is linked with the Worshipful Company of Coopers and the Worshipful Company of Bowyers.
The church lies on the west side of the road named Bishopsgate (Roman Ermine Street), near Liverpool Street station. The church and street both take their name from the 'Bishop's Gate' in London's defensive wall which stood approximately 30 metres to the south.
Stow, writing in 1598 describes the church of his time as standing "in a fair churchyard, adjoining to the town ditch, upon the very bank thereof". [2] The City Ditch was a defensive feature, that lay immediately outside the walls and was intended to make attack on the walls by mining or by escalade more difficult.
The church was one of four in medieval London dedicated to Saint Botolph or Botwulf, a 7th-century East Anglian saint, each of which stood by one of the gates to the city. The other three were near neighbour St Botolph's Aldgate, St Botolph's Aldersgate near the Barbican Centre and St Botolph's, Billingsgate by the riverside (this church was destroyed by the Great Fire and not rebuilt). [3]
By the end of the 11th century Botolph was regarded as the patron saint of boundaries, and by extension of trade and travel. [4] The veneration of Botolph was most pronounced before the legend of St Christopher became popular amongst travellers. [5]
It is believed [6] the church just outside Aldgate, 450 metres to the south-east, was the first in London to have been dedicated to Botolph, with the other dedications following soon after.
The Priory just inside Aldgate was founded by clergy from St Botolph's Priory in Colchester, just under fifty miles along the Roman Road from Aldgate. The Priory at Colchester, like the church at Aldgate (though not the Priory at Aldgate), lay just outside the South Gate (also known as St Botolph's Gate) in the Colchester's Wall. The Priors held the land of the Portsoken, outside the wall, and are thought to have built and dedicated the church, St Botolph without Aldgate, that served it.
The church of St Botolph's Church, Cambridge just outside the south gate of that city, may[ original research? ] in turn, have taken its dedication from St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate to which it was linked by Ermine Street.
The first known written record of the church is from 1212. [7] However, it is thought that Christian worship on this site may have Roman origins, though this is not fully proven. [8]
The church survived the Great Fire of London in 1666, and was rebuilt in 1724–29.
In around 1307, the Knights Templar were examined here by an inquisition on charges of corruption, [7] and in 1413 a female hermit was recorded as living here, supported by a pension of forty shillings a year paid by the Sheriff. [7]
It narrowly escaped the Great Fire of London, the sexton's house having been partly demolished to stop the spread of the flames. [9] Writing in 1708, Hatton described it as "an old church built of brick and stone, and rendered over". By this time the Gothic church had been altered with the addition of Tuscan columns supporting the roof, and Ionic ones the galleries. [2]
St. Botolphs Bishopsgate Church Rebuilding Act 1723 | |
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Act of Parliament | |
Long title | An Act for re-building the Parish Church of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, in the City of London, at the Charge of the Inhabitants of the said Parish. |
Citation | 10 Geo. 1. c. 5Pr. |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 19 March 1724 |
In 1710, the parishioners petitioned Parliament for permission to rebuild the church on another site, but nothing was done. [10] In 1723 the church was found to be irreparable [9] and the parishioners petitioned again. Having obtained an act of Parliament, the St. Botolphs Bishopsgate Church Rebuilding Act 1723 (10 Geo. 1. c. 5Pr.), they set up a temporary building in the churchyard, and began to rebuild the church. The first stone was laid in 1725, [11] and the new building was consecrated in 1728, though not completed until the next year. The designer was James Gold [12] or Gould. [13] During construction, the foundations of the original Anglo-Saxon church were discovered.
To provide a striking frontage towards Bishopsgate, the architect placed the tower at the east end, its ground floor, with a pediment on the exterior, forming the chancel. The east end and tower are faced with stone, while the rest of the church is brick, with stone dressings. [12]
The interior is divided into nave and aisles by Composite columns, the nave being barrel vaulted. The church was soon found to be too dark, so a large west window was created, but this was largely obscured by the organ [12] installed in front of it in 1764. [9] In 1820 a lantern was added to the centre of the roof. [12]
The church was designated a Grade II* listed building on 4 January 1950 [14] and contains memorials to the war dead of 5th and 8th Battalions London Regiment.
The church suffered minor bomb damage in the Second World War and subsequently in the 1993 Bishopsgate bombing.
The infant son of the playwright Ben Jonson is buried in the churchyard, and baptisms in this church include Edward Alleyn in 1566, Emilia Lanier (née Bassano; widely considered to be the first Englishwoman to become a professional poet) on 27 January 1569, and John Keats (in the present font) in 1795. [15] Emilia Lanier married Alfonso Lanier in the church on 18 October 1592. [16] Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman , was baptised there in 1759. [17]
At one point the satirist and essayist Stephen Gosson was rector. The didactic poet Robert Carliell (fl. 1619), who championed the new Church of England, held property in the parish. [18]
Within the churchyard, the church hall is the Grade II, former livery hall of the Worshipful Company of Fan Makers. It is a single-storied classical red brick and Portland stone building, with niches containing figures of charity children. [19]
The figures which stood in the niches at the front of the building were previously painted every year by schoolchildren, but have since been restored and stripped of paint and, due to theft attempts, moved inside the hall. Modern replicas now stand in the niches on the front of the building. [20]
Also within the area of the church is the entrance kiosk to a former underground Victorian Turkish bath. It was designed by the architect, Harold Elphick, and opened by City of London Alderman Treloar on 5 February 1895 for Henry and James Forder Neville [a] who owned other Turkish baths [21] in Victorian London.
† Rector died in post
Charles James Blomfield was a British divine and classicist, and a Church of England bishop for 32 years.
Bishopsgate was one of the eastern gates in London's former defensive wall. The gate's name is traditionally attributed to Earconwald, who was Bishop of London in the 7th century. It was first built in Roman times and marked the beginning of Ermine Street, the ancient road running from London to York (Eboracum). The gate was rebuilt twice in the 15th and 18th centuries, but was permanently demolished in 1760.
The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great, sometimes abbreviated to St-Barts-the-Great, is a mediaeval church in the Church of England's Diocese of London located in Smithfield within the City of London. The building was founded as an Augustinian priory in 1123. It adjoins St Bartholomew's Hospital of the same foundation.
Botolph of Thorney was an English abbot and saint. He is regarded as the patron saint of boundaries, and by extension, of trade and travel, as well as various aspects of farming. His feast day is celebrated either on 17 June (England) or 25 June (Scotland).
Sion College, in London, is an institution founded by royal charter in 1630 as a college, guild of parochial clergy and almshouse, under the 1623 will of Thomas White, vicar of St Dunstan's in the West.
St Helen's Bishopsgate is an Anglican church in London. It is located in Great St Helen's, off Bishopsgate.
St. Botolph's Priory was a medieval house of Augustinian canons in Colchester, Essex, founded c. 1093. The priory had the distinction of being the first and leading Augustinian convent in England until its dissolution in 1536.
St John's Abbey, also called Colchester Abbey, was a Benedictine monastic institution in Colchester, Essex, founded in 1095. It was dissolved in 1539. Most of the abbey buildings were subsequently demolished to construct a large private house on the site, which was itself destroyed in fighting during the 1648 siege of Colchester. The only substantial remnant is the elaborate gatehouse, while the foundations of the abbey church were only rediscovered in 2010.
St Botolph's Aldgate is a Church of England parish church in the City of London and also, as it lies outside the line of the city's former eastern walls, a part of the East End of London. The church served the ancient parish of St Botolph without Aldgate which included the extramural Portsoken Ward of the City of London, as well as East Smithfield which is outside the City.
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 churches rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. The church was demolished in 1904.
The Church of St Andrew, Holborn, is a Church of England church on the northwestern edge of the City of London, on Holborn within the Ward of Farringdon Without.
St Botolph without Aldersgate is a Church of England church in London dedicated to St Botolph. It was built just outside Aldersgate, one of the gates on London's wall, in the City of London.
The Holy Trinity Priory, also known as Christchurch Aldgate, was a priory of Austin canons founded around 1108 by the English queen Matilda of Scotland near Aldgate in London.
St Botolph's, Billingsgate was a Church of England parish church in London. Of medieval origin, it was located in the Billingsgate ward of the City of London and destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666.
The Knighten Guilde or Cnichtengild, which translates into modern English as the Knight's Guild, was an obscure Medieval guild of the City of London. According to A Survey of London by John Stow (1603), it was in origin an order of chivalry founded by the Saxon king Edgar for loyal knights.
Holy Trinity, Minories, was a Church of England parish church outside the eastern boundaries of the City of London, but within the Liberties of the Tower of London and therefore in the East End of London. The liberty was incorporated in the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney in 1899, and today is within the City of London. Converted from the chapel of a nunnery, Holy Trinity was in use as a church from the 16th century until the end of the 19th century. It survived as a parish hall until it was destroyed by bombing during World War II.
St Osyth's Abbey was a house of Augustine Canons Regular in the parish of St Osyth in Essex, England in use from the 12th to 16th centuries. Founded by Richard de Belmeis, Bishop of London, c. 1121, it became one of the largest religious houses in Essex. It was dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul as well as St Osyth (Osith), a royal saint and virgin martyr. Bishop Richard obtained the arm bone of St Osyth from Aylesbury for the monastic church and granted the canons the parish church of St Osyth.
St Botolph's Church may refer to numerous churches in England, usually dedicated to Botolph of Thorney, including:
William Hutchinson was an English priest in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
(rpnt 1992)
(rev 1993, 2008)