Christ Church Greyfriars, also known as Christ Church Newgate Street, was a church in
Newgate
Newgate was one of the historic seven gates of the London Wall around the City of London and one of the six which date back to Roman times. Newgate lay on the west side of the wall and the road issuing from it headed over the River Fleet to M ...
Street, opposite
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 ...
in the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
. Established as a monastic church in the thirteenth century, it became a
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activitie ...
after the
Dissolution of the Monasteries. Following its destruction 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 ...
of 1666, it was rebuilt to the designs of Sir
Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churc ...
. Except for the tower, the church was largely destroyed by
bombing
A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...
during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. The decision was made not to rebuild the church; the ruins are now a public garden.
History
Gothic church
Christ Church Greyfriars had its origins in the conventual church of a
Franciscan
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...
, the name 'Greyfriars' being a reference to the grey habits worn by Franciscan friars. The first church on the site was built in the mid-thirteenth century, but this was soon replaced by a much larger building, begun in the 1290s and finished in about 1360.
[ This new church was the second largest in medieval London, measuring long and wide, with at least eleven altars. It was built partly at the expense of Marguerite of France, second wife of King Edward I.][ She was buried at the church, as was Isabella, widow of ]Edward II
Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to ...
and her daughter Joan of the Tower, Queen of Scotland. The heart of Eleanor of Provence
Eleanor of Provence (c. 1223 – 24/25 June 1291) was a French noblewoman who became Queen of England as the wife of King Henry III from 1236 until his death in 1272. She served as regent of England during the absence of her spouse in 1253.
A ...
, wife of Henry III, was also interred there.
Richard Whittington
Richard Whittington (c. 1354–1423) of the parish of St Michael Paternoster Royal, City of London, was an English merchant and a politician of the late medieval period. He is also the real-life inspiration for the English folk tale '' D ...
, Lord Mayor of London, founded a library in connection with the church in 1429.[
The monastery was dissolved in 1538 during the English Reformation. The building and fittings suffered heavy damage in this period. Tombs disappeared, sold for their marble and other valuable materials; monuments were defaced.]["The Visitors Guide to the City of London Churches" Tucker, T: London, Friends of the City Churches, 2006 ] In 1546, Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagr ...
gave the priory and its church, along with the churches of St Nicholas Shambles
St Nicholas Shambles was a medieval church in the City of London, which stood on the corner of Butcher Hall Lane (now King Edward Street) and Newgate Street. It took its name from the Shambles, the butchers area in the west of Newgate Street. The ...
and St Ewin, Newgate Market, to the City Corporation. A new parish of Christ Church was created, incorporating those of St Nicholas and St Ewin, and part of that of St Sepulchre.[ The priory buildings later housed ]Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 155 ...
school, founded by Edward VI,[ and the church became its pupils' principal place of worship.][
In the 1640s Christ Church was the church of the Presbyterian polemicist Thomas Edwards, and during May 1647 became a centre of operations for attempts to disband and pay arrears to members of the New Model Army.
]
Wren's church
The medieval church was destroyed by 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 ...
in 1666. Reconstruction was assigned to Wren, who oversaw a decades long programme to rebuild St. Paul's Cathedral and approximately 50 parish churches. There appears to have been some debate about the form the new Christ Church should take. A surviving unused design shows a structure considerably larger than the one eventually built.
The parish was united with that of St Leonard, Foster Lane, which was not rebuilt[
Parishioners raised £1,000 to begin work on the design. To save time and money, the foundations of the gothic church were partially reused. The new church and tower (without steeple) were completed in 1687, at a total cost of £11,778 9s. 7¼d.][Jeffery, ''The City Churches of Sir Christopher Wren'' p. 191.] Smaller than the gothic structure, the building measured long and wide, occupying only the eastern end of the site of the medieval church, the western part becoming its churchyard.
The tower, rising from the west end of the church, had a simple round-arched main entranceway and, above, windows decorated with neoclassical pediments. Large carved pineapples, symbols of welcome, graced the four roof corners of the main church structure. Unique among the Wren churches, the east and west walls had buttresses.
The interior was divided into nave and aisles by Corinthian columns, raised on tall plinths so that their bases were level with the gallery floors. The aisles had flat ceilings, while the nave had a shallow cross-vault.[ The north and south walls had large round-arched windows of clear glass, which allowed for a brightly lit interior. The east end had trinity windows, a large wooden altar screen and a carved hexagonal pulpit, reached by stairs. There was elaborate carved wainscoting. A pavement of reddish brown and grey marble to the west of the altar rails was said to date from the original gothic church. Galleries stood over the north and south aisles, built at special request of the officers of Christ's Hospital as seating for the school's students. Pews were said to have been made from the timbers of a wrecked Spanish ]galleon
Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships first used as armed cargo carriers by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries during the age of sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch W ...
. The organ, on the west wall over the main nave door, was built by Renatus Harris in 1690, according to a pre-war guide to the church.
The steeple, standing about tall, was finished in 1704 at an additional cost of £1,963, 8s. 3½ d. It has three diminishing storeys, square in plan, the middle one with a freestanding Ionic colonnade.
Over the course of the church’s existence, significant modifications were made. In 1760, a vestry house was built against the facade’s south side and part of the church's south wall. At some point, rooms were enclosed in the north and south aisles beneath the galleries. Stained glass depicting Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
with the children was installed in the centre trinity window to replace the original clear glass.
The church functioned as an important centre of City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
society and music. The Lord Mayor attended an annual service to hear the Ancient Spital Sermon on the second Wednesday after Easter, placing his ceremonial sword in a special holder. Felix Mendelssohn played Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
's A minor fugue and other works on the organ in 1837. Samuel Wesley also performed at the church.
The Christ's Hospital boys continued to attend services, sitting in the galleries. According to the pre-war guide book to the church, they included the young Samuel Coleridge and Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb (10 February 1775 – 27 December 1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his '' Essays of Elia'' and for the children's book ''Tales from Shakespeare'', co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764– ...
. Sixth Form boys tasked with maintaining order sat in special seats placed over those of the younger students. A few boys carved initials in the woodwork.
Decline of the congregation
In 1902 Christ's Hospital moved out of the City to Horsham
Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby ...
, West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an a ...
, ending the Sunday influx of its schoolboys. A new vicar, T.R. Hine-Haycock, took over in 1912. A July 1922 Christ Church newsletter preserved at Guildhall Library
The Guildhall Library is a public reference library specialising in subjects relevant to London. It is administered by the Corporation of London, the government of the City of London, which is the historical heart of London, England.
The libra ...
shows that at that time it had an 8:30 a.m. Holy Communion
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an Ordinance (Christianity), ordinance in others. According to the New Testame ...
service every Sunday, and musical services at 11 a.m. every first and third Sunday.The church was open daily for private prayer from noon to 3 p.m. In its final years, the congregation continued to drop in size, a common trend for City churches as people relocated to suburban neighbourhoods of 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 ...
. Parish records at the Guildhall Library
The Guildhall Library is a public reference library specialising in subjects relevant to London. It is administered by the Corporation of London, the government of the City of London, which is the historical heart of London, England.
The libra ...
show there were 112 members in April 1933, mostly residents of places outside the parish boundaries. Many of those who made their homes in the parish were "housekeepers", people who lived in and looked after commercial buildings. In April 1937, the membership had dropped to 77.
Destruction
The church was severely damaged in the Blitz
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'.
The Germa ...
on 29 December 1940. During one of the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
's fiercest air raid
Air raid may refer to:
Attacks
* Airstrike
* Strategic bombing
Other uses
* ''Air Raid'' (album), by the improvisational collective Air
* Air Raid ''(Transformers)'', the name of three characters in the Transformers universes
* ''Air Raid'' ...
s on London, a firebomb struck the roof and tore into the nave. Much of the surrounding neighbourhood was also set alight—a total of eight Wren
Wrens are a family of brown passerine birds in the predominantly New World family Troglodytidae. The family includes 88 species divided into 19 genera. Only the Eurasian wren occurs in the Old World, where, in Anglophone regions, it is commonl ...
churches burned that night. At Christ Church, the only fitting known to have been saved was the cover of the finely carved wooden font, recovered by an unknown fireman who ran inside as the flames raged. The roof and vaulting collapsed into the nave; the tower and four main walls, made of stone, remained standing but were smoke-scarred and gravely weakened. A photograph taken the following day shows two firemen hosing down smouldering rubble in the nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...
.

Post-war period
In 1944, ''The Times'' wrote about the ruins of Christ Church
In 1949, in a reorganisation of Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
parishes in London, authorities decided not to rebuild Christ Church. The remains of the church were designated a Grade I listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...
on 4 January 1950. In 1954, the Christ Church parish was merged with that of the nearby St Sepulchre-without-Newgate.
The steeple, still standing after the wartime damage, was disassembled in 1960 and put back together using modern construction methods. The surviving lower part of the south wall and the entire east wall were demolished in 1962 to make way for a widening of King Edward Street. In 1981, neo-Georgian brick offices were constructed against the southwest corner of the ruins, in imitation of the 1760 vestry house that had stood there. In 1989, the former nave area became a public garden and memorial.[Bradley/Pevsner, ''London: The City Churches'' p. 54.] The tower's lowers levels functioned as commercial rental space.
In 2002, the financial firm Merrill Lynch
Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment banki ...
completed a regional headquarters complex on land abutting to the north and the west. In conjunction with that project, the Christ Church site underwent a major renovation and archeological examination, King Edward Street was returned to its former course, and the site of the church regained its pre-war footprint. The churchyard was spruced up and its metal railings restored. In 2006, work was completed to convert the tower and spire into a modern twelve-level private residence. The nave area continues as a memorial; the wooden font cover, topped by a carved angel, can today be seen in the porch of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate.
Burials
* John Segrave, 4th Baron Segrave
*John Devereux, 1st Baron Devereux
John Devereux, 1st Baron Devereux, KG, was a close companion of Edward, the Black Prince, and an English peer during the reign of King Richard II.
Birth and Ancestry
John Devereux of Whitchurch Maund was the son of John Devereux of Manne ( ...
* Elizabeth Barton (the 'mad maid of Kent')
* Richard Baxter (theologian)
* Venetia Stanley (Society beauty)
* Kenelm Digby (courtier, adventurer, and natural philosopher)
*Humphry Ditton
Humphry Ditton (29 May 1675 – 15 October 1715) was an English mathematician. He was the author of several influential works.
Life
Ditton was born on 29 May 1675 in Salisbury, the only son of Humphry Ditton, gentleman and ardent nonconformist, ...
(mathematician)
*Isabella of France
Isabella of France ( – 22 August 1358), sometimes described as the She-Wolf of France (), was Queen of England as the wife of King Edward II, and regent of England from 1327 until 1330. She was the youngest surviving child and only surviving ...
(Queen of England)
* Thomas Malory (author of '' Le Morte d'Arthur'')
* Marguerite of France (Queen of England)
* Joan of The Tower (Queen of Scotland)
*Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk
Margaret of Norfolk or Margaret of Brotherton, in her own right Countess of Norfolk (sometimes surnamed as "Margaret Marshal"; –24 March 1399), was the daughter and eventual sole heir of Thomas of Brotherton, eldest son of King Edward I of Engl ...
(noblewoman)
* Isabella de Coucy (princess)
*Beatrice of England
Beatrice of England (25 June 1242 – 24 March 1275) was a member of the House of Plantagenet, the daughter of Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence.
Childhood
Born 25 June 1242, Beatrice was the second-eldest daughter of King Henry II ...
(princess)
*Richard Royston
Richard Royston (1601 in Oxford – November 1686) was an English bookseller and publisher, bookseller to Charles I, Charles II and James II.
Royston, the son of an Oxford tailor Richard Royston and Alice Tideman, was admitted a freeman of th ...
(Royalist printer)
*Sir William Byrt (Knighted by King Edward IV)
See also
* List of Christopher Wren churches in London
Sir Christopher Wren was 33 years old and near the beginning of his career as an architect when the Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed many of the city's public buildings, including 88 of its parish churches. Wren's office was commissioned to ...
* List of churches rebuilt after the Great Fire but since demolished
Notes
References
* Bell, Derek and Reynes, Malcolm. ''Christchurch Newgate Street: Its History and Architecture'' Bene Factum Publishing Ltd. for Christchurch Group of Companies 1997.
* Bradley, Simon and Pevsner, Nikolaus. ''London: The City Churches''. New Haven, Yale, 1998.
* Cobb, G ''The Old Churches of London'': London, Batsford,1942
* Holder, Nick, ''The Friaries of Medieval London: From Foundation to Dissolution'', Woodbridge: Boydell, 2017, pages 66–96;
* Jeffery, Paul. ''The City Churches of Sir Christopher Wren''. The Hambledon Press 1996.
External links
Christening, marriage and burial register of Christ Church Newgate for years 1538-1754
{{Coord, 51, 30, 56.94, N, 0, 5, 56.93, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title
Churches bombed by the Luftwaffe in London
Buildings and structures in the United Kingdom destroyed during World War II
Christopher Wren church buildings in London
Churches in the City of London, of which only the tower remains
English Baroque church buildings
17th-century Church of England church buildings
Grade I listed churches in the City of London
Ruins of churches destroyed during World War II
World War II sites in England
Ruins in London
Church ruins in England
Burial sites of the House of Plantagenet
Friaries in England