Church of St Mary Woolnoth London, England

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

627/10/300 LOMBARD STREET EC3 04-JAN-50 (South side) CHURCH OF ST MARY WOOLNOTH KING WILLIAM STREET EC4 (East side) CHURCH OF ST MARY WOOLNOTH

GV I This list entry has been amended as part of the Bicentenary commemorations of the 1807 Abolition Act.

Church, 1716-1727, by Nicholas Hawksmoor, assisted by John James. The chief mason was Thomas Dunn. Interior altered 1875-6 by William Butterfield. In 1897-8 Bank Underground station was built beneath the church; the entrance (now out of use) by Sidney R. J. Smith is attached to the south façade.

EXTERIOR: Portland stone. Square body, the west façade featuring a projecting central bay with banded rustication, the cylindrical Tuscan columns at the angles banded with the same rustication. Round-headed doorway with semi-circular window above; the window repeated on each side at clerestory level. Broad shallow tower: the base with three unmoulded square windows; the principal storey of three bays with engaged Composite columns, surmounted by two square turrets with balustrades. Low doorways flanking the tower give access to the galleries. North elevation has five low blind apertures with heavy keystones on which sit smaller apertures, also blind. Above three of these apertures (east, centre, and west) are complex aedicules placed within large round-headed rusticated frames: columns set diagonally support a straight entablature curving back; these in their turn frame niches containing a second arch, springing from the column bases, and above this a blank panel. The treatment of this elevation has been described by John Summerson as 'a piece of sheer architectural eloquence hard to match' (Georgian London, 1945). The absence of windows on this wall insulated the interior from the noise of Lombard Street. The lower part of the south elevation is now masked by the single-storey former Underground station entrance (with new vestry), in a style which pays tribute to Hawksmoor. This elevation has five bays, of which only the westernmost is now visible to full height: a low aperture corresponds to those on the north elevation; above is a tall round-headed recess containing a framed blind opening surmounted by a round-headed window (this window is also blind; the windows of the other four bays light the church).

INTERIOR: Square high space supported at each corner by three Corinthian columns, and lit by the large semi-circular windows above a straight entablature. Rich plasterwork by Chrysostom Wilkins, incorporating palm fronds and cherubs. Square ambulatory, formerly with galleries reached by doors in the west angles. The galleries were made by John Meard and carved by Thomas Darby and Gervase Smith; they were taken down by Butterfield, who set their fronts against the walls. In the shallow chancel an ornate wooden baldacchino with twisted columns and canopy ornamented with gilded cherubs, made by Meard and carved by Gabriel Appleby; Butterfield's raising of the chancel forced the baldacchino high into the elliptical chancel arch. The polychromatic flooring of the chancel dates from 1875-6. Original west organ gallery with organ case dated 1681; a second organ of 1913 is placed at east end of north aisle. Pulpit of bulging form, made by Darby and Smith and inlaid with sunbursts by Appleby, the tester echoing the shape of the ceiling. Wrought iron communion rails by John Robins. A memorial tablet on the north wall to the church's most celebrated rector, John Newton, bears an epitaph written by Newton himself, which begins: 'John Newton, Clerk. Once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy.'

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Railings of c1900 at west end, extended to left and right c1992 when curved screen walls housing entrances to the Underground station were remove