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The Commission for Building Fifty New Churches (in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
and the surroundings) was an organisation set up by
Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliame ...
in
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
in 1711, the
New Churches in London and Westminster Act 1710 The New Churches in London and Westminster Act 1710 is an Act of Parliament in England in 1710, which set up the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches, with the purpose of building fifty new churches for the rapidly growing population of Lo ...
, with the purpose of building fifty new churches for the rapidly growing conurbation of London. It did not achieve its target, but did build a number of churches, which would become known as the Queen Anne Churches.


Churches built

Most of the churches were designed by
Nicholas Hawksmoor Nicholas Hawksmoor (probably 1661 – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principa ...
, with John James,
Thomas Archer Thomas Archer (1668–1743) was an English Baroque architect, whose work is somewhat overshadowed by that of his contemporaries Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor. His buildings are important as the only ones by an English Baroque archit ...
and James Gibbs also participating. *
Christ Church, Spitalfields Christ Church Spitalfields is an Anglican church built between 1714 and 1729 to a design by Nicholas Hawksmoor. On Commercial Street in the East End and in today's Central London it is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, on its western bord ...
, Hawksmoor 1714–29 * St Alfege Church, Greenwich, Hawksmoor 1712–18 (rebuilding of an existing church) * St Anne's Limehouse, Hawksmoor 1714–30 *
St George's, Bloomsbury St George's, Bloomsbury, is a parish church in Bloomsbury, London Borough of Camden, United Kingdom. It was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and consecrated in 1730. The church crypt houses the Museum of Comedy. History The Commissioners for the ...
, Hawksmoor 1716–31 * St George in the East, Hawksmoor 1714–29 * St George's, Hanover Square, James 1720–25 * St John Horsleydown, Hawksmoor and James 1727–33 * St John's, Smith Square, Archer 1713–28 * St Luke Old Street, Hawksmoor and James 1727–33 * St Mary le Strand, Gibbs 1714–23 * St Mary Woolnoth, Hawksmoor 1716–24 (rebuilding of an existing church) * St Paul's, Deptford, Archer 1713–30 The Commission partly funded rebuilding of five churches: St George Gravesend, St George the Martyr Southwark, St Giles in the Fields,
St Mary Magdalen Woolwich St Mary Magdalene Woolwich is an 18th-century Anglican church dedicated to St Mary Magdalene in Woolwich, southeast London, England. History Christianity in Woolwich goes back to the Early Middle Ages. In 2015 Oxford Archaeology discovered ...
and
St Michael, Cornhill St Michael, Cornhill, is a medieval parish church in the City of London with pre- Norman Conquest parochial foundation. It lies in the ward of Cornhill. The medieval structure was lost in the Great Fire of London, and replaced by the present ...
. It bought and altered St George the Martyr Holborn and bought St John Clerkenwell.


Funding

The Commission was funded by a duty on coal coming into London. This tax was originally levied in 1670 to pay for the rebuilding of
St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...
and City churches destroyed in the
Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past th ...
. When the Commission was set up the duty was assigned to it. In 1718 the duty became part of general government revenues but was still used to fund the Commissioners' work.


Notes


External links

* * {{Authority control 1710s in London * 1710 in Great Britain Religion and politics History of Christianity in the United Kingdom History of the Church of England 1710 in England