ST.STEPHEN WALLBROOK

St.Stephen Wallbrook, the London Church where Chad Varah founded the world famous Samaritans in 1953, is considered by many people to be the greatest of Christopher Wren's, London Churches. It is certainly one of his most beautiful.

A Roman temple dedicated to the pagan God Mithras was built in the third century A.D. on the banks of the Wallbrook, a stream which ran from what is now Moorfields to the river Thames.

At the end of the fourth century, as the Roman Empire crumbled, in the face of continually successful attacks, by many different Barbarian hordes, the Roman legions were recalled to Rome, in a last ditch attempt to save the very seat of the Empire.

When in 410 A.D. all Romans had been recalled to Rome, the Emperor Honorious informed the people of Britain, that they no longer had a connection to Rome, they should therefore learn how to defend themselves as the Romans would not be coming back.

This announcement was therefore an invitation for open season on all things that had been Roman. The temple, as with all Roman buildings became a quarry. All that was left were the foundations.

These foundations were discovered, when excavations commenced in 1953 for the construction of Bucklersbury House. They are preserved to this day, but not in their original location, as they were moved a little further east.

In about 700A.D. the Saxon Christians built a church on the temple's foundations, but by 1428 this church and its graveyard were too small, so a new church would have to be built. Licences were obtained and a larger church, about twenty metres to the east and on higher ground was constructed.

This Church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, which devastated the City. Starting in a bakers shop in Pudding Lane, in the early hours of Sunday morning on 2nd September, it was eventually extinguished four days later on Thursday 6th September.

In all, 13,200 houses, eighty seven Parish Churches and 6 Consecrated Chapels, all the major sites of trade and Government, the Guildhall, Royal Exchange, Customs House, Sessions House, fifty two Company Halls, the Prisons at Bridewell and Newgate, Wood St. and Poultry Comptors, three City Gates and four Stone Bridges had been consumed by the fire. Everything had to be rebuilt and as quickly as humanly possible.

Parliament passed the first Rebuilding Act in the February of 1667. This Act dealt with the plans for the rebirth of the City of London. In 1670 the Second Rebuilding Act came into force, this specified that a total of 51 Churches across the city were to be rebuilt.

When the King's Surveyor died at the beginning of 1669, Sir Christopher Wren was appointed to succeed him. This position also made him the Royal Architect. The following year, Wren set up office for the rebuilding of the City Churches, four years after the Great Fire. But how was this enormous Project to be financed?

London already used up huge amounts of coal, which was shipped in from Newcastle, so Parliament acted and imposed a tax on every shipment of coal into the City, and this is how the massive task of rebuilding the City of London was funded.

Seperate commissions were set up to deal with the rebuilding of St.Paul's Cathedral and the Churches. Because of his position as Surveyor, Wren was appointed architect to both of them, with offices staffed for each of the Projects.

From the very beginning of this massive undertaking, Wren had begun to think about his masterwork, St.Paul's Cathedral.

His personal involvement and control over the design and construction of the Cathedral was far greater than he applied to the churches.

Regardless of the greatness of a person's intellect or the strength of that person's willpower, there is only a finite amount, both of time and energy, that one man can apply on whatever he sets his human mind to accomplish. This meant that a considerable amount of the works had to be delegated to others.

With Robert Hooke and Nicholas Hawkesmoor, he had two remarkably talented men, as assistants.

Up to the present day there is a general concensus of opinion that these two men were not given anywhere near enough credit for their contributions to these London Churches.

There are so many differences, especially to the interiors, from one church to another, that this would tend to confirm this assumption. Of course the great variety in the designs of the churches would be an excellent way to experiment with ideas for his greatest project of all, St.Paul's Cathedral. St.Stephen Wallbrook, is an excellent example of this.

Whilst he was on an observational trip to Louis XVI's palace at the Louvre in Paris in 1665, he became obsessed with the idea of building a domed cathedral in London. The idea did not leave him.

By the 1670's Wren was working on his designs for St.Paul's but had not found the right one, and in 1672 work began on St.Stephen Wallbrook, the only church to be started that year.

This building was to be, in effect, an experiment for the designs Wren was then preparing for his masterpiece. Not a few people consider St.Stephen Wallbrook, to be Wren's major city church after the Cathedral. This wasn't so surprising if one considers that he was also a Parishioner of the Parish, living at No.15 Wallbrook.

It is certain that he himself was responsible for both the design and the construction.

Wren had to design a new rennaisance building in a very limited space. His plan was to create maximum space on the inside, leaving the outside to close up against the adjacent buildings. He experimented with a dome, the first one to be built in England.

A MASTERPIECE IS BEGUN.

On 17th December 1672, the Lord Mayor of London, the lieutenant of the Tower of London, one of the Chicheley family, six members of the Court of Grocers' Company, the Rector, two churchwardens and four other parishioners, laid the first stones of the new St.Stephen Wallbrook, Church.

Two months later the Vestry gave Wren 'or his lady' a silk purse with twenty guineas for 'his great care and extraordinary pains, taken in contriving the design of the Church. This was the usual formula for the person who designed a building, indicating that the design had been finished.

Wren's chief draughtsman was given five guineas. As with Wren he had been working simultaneously on designs for the Church as well as for St.Paul's Cathedral.

To say the dome of St.Stephen Wallbrook, was unusual in English Ecclesiastical Architecture, was correct. Such a structure had never been seen in England before, that's for sure.

The finished results are amazing. Whilst walking up Wallbrook, what one expects to find is a traditional Parish Church, as there is nothing on the outside of St.Stephen Wallbrook, to prepare the visitor for the absolute splendour of the inside. The light coloured building materials he used, combined with the light flooding into the domed central area, creates a wonderful sense of space, calm and beauty.

The interior is in the shape of a Latin Cross. The dome which is carried on eight arches and freestanding columns, gives the appearance of a building within a building.

The pews and font, pulpit, reredos and western screen, introduced in 1679 were paid for by private subscriptions and not out of the coal tax. The steeple was not built until 1713 -1717. The high box pews were installed in 1768.

A hundred years later an organ was placed in the western apse, and Benjamin West's huge altarpiece of 'The Burial of St.Stephen' was placed above the reredos, blocking the main east window.

Perhaps of interest to our friends from the U.S.A. is that Benjamin West was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania and was the first (and so far the only one) American painter to become President of the Royal Academy. He is buried in St.Paul's Cathedral.

By the eighteenth century the Church of St.Stephan Wallbrook, was famous all over Europe. When Lord Burlington went to Rome to see the city's famous buildings, he was met, by the Italian sculptor - architect, Antonio Canova (of The Three Graces), who congratulated him on coming from London to which, he said, he would gladly return to feast his eyes once more on St.Paul's Cathedral, Somerset House and most of all, St.Stephen Wallbrook, Church.

Burlington had to admit to his host, that he did not know anything of St.Stephen Wallbrook, so Canova sent him back to look at it, saying 'we have nothing to touch it in Rome'.

Sir John Somerson has described the Church as 'the pride of English architecture, and one of the few City Churches in which the genius of Wren shines in full splendour'. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner lists it as one of the ten most important buildings in England.

In 1888 the box pews were removed and the paving stones replaced with mosaic.

St.Stephen Wallbrook, was damaged during the Blitz, but was restored by Godfrey Allen 1951-52, only to be further damaged by the stream running below the Church.

The Central Altar...Hmmm...was by Henry Moore.

Lord Palumbo sponsored the repairs between 1978-87, including the controversial massive polished stone altar, carved by Henry Moore, which just sits there in the middle of the floor. It was once referred to as a ripe camembert cheese and it isn't too difficult to see why.

There were many burials under the Church of St.Stephen Wallbrook, and some interesting memorials on the walls. Sir John Vanbrugh architect of Blenheim Palace and of Castle Howard and Wren's junior collegue is buried in the family vault beneath the floor.

Memorials include one to Dr.Nathaniel Hodges, who was buried there in 1688. During the Great Plague of 1665, he bravely stayed in London to help the sick. There is another to John Dunstable, Master of Astronomy, who was buried in the old church in 1453.

Dunstable was very influential throughout England and Europe, being once described as the greatest composer in Europe and was reputed to be an astronomer and mathematician.

Sir John Vanbrugh, Dramatist and the Architect of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard (ably assisted by his friend, Nicholas Hawkesmoor on both projects) was buried in the family vault here.

Dr. Chad Varah, was the Rector here when he founded The Samaritans in 1953. The telephone which he used as a helpline for those in need, is housed in the glass case at the west end of the Church.

He was also one of the people behind the Eagle comic's strip cartoon spaceman, Dan Dare and his Wigan sidekick, Digby, from about 1950 until the early 1960's.

As in so many of the London Churches, there are many lunchtime music recitals to listen to in St.Stephen Wallbrook. It is another one of the beautiful Tourist Attractions of London and well worth a visit.

How To Get To St.Stephen Wallbrook, Church: Nearest Underground: Bank and Cannon St. Stations.Overground Rail: Cannon St.Station.Buses from Central London:11,15 and 23.

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