St Stephen's, Walbrook

St. Stephen Walbrook
St. Stephen Walbrook at dusk
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Website	http://www.ststephenwalbrook.net
Architecture
Architect(s)	Sir Christopher Wren
Style	Baroque
Administration
Diocese	London

St Stephen Walbrook is a church in the City of London, part of the Church of England's Diocese of London. The present domed building was erected to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren following the destruction of its medieval predecessor in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It is located in Walbrook, next to the Mansion House, and near to Bank and Monument Underground stations.

Early history

The original church of St Stephen stood on the west side of the Walbrook, a stream running southwards across the City of London from the City Wall near Moorfields to the Thames.

The church was moved to its present site, on the east side of the Walbrook (later concealed in a culvert), in the 15th century. In 1429 Robert Chichely, acting as executor of will of the former Lord Mayor, Sir William Stondon, bought a piece of land on the east side of the Walbrook, and presented it to the parish. Several foundation stones were laid at a ceremony on 11 May 1429, and the church was consecrated ten years later, on 30 April 1439. At 125 feet (38 m) long and 67 feet (20 m) wide, it was considerably larger than the present building.

The church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It contained a memorial to the composer John Dunstaple. The wording of the epitaph had been recorded in the early 17th century, and was reinstated in the church in 1904, some 450 years after his death. The nearby church of St Benet Sherehog, also destroyed in the Great Fire, was not rebuilt; instead its parish was united with that of St Stephen.

Wren's church

The interior of St Stephen Walbrook in the early 19th century.

View showing the coffered dome and its supporting arches

The present building was constructed in 1672-9 to a design by Sir Christopher Wren, at a cost of £7,692. It is rectangular in plan, with a dome and an attached north west tower. Entry to the church is up a flight of sixteen steps, enclosed in a porch attached to the west front. Wren also designed a porch for the north side of the church. This was never built, but there once was a north door, which was bricked up in 1685, as it let in the offensive smells from the slaughterhouses in the neighbouring Stocks Market. The walls, tower, and internal columns are made of stone, but the dome is of timber and plaster with an external covering of copper

The 63 feet (19 m) high dome is based on Wren's original design for St Paul's, and is centred over a square of twelve columns of the Corinthian order. The circular base of the dome is not carried, in the conventional way, by pendentives formed above the arches of the square, but on a circle formed by eight arches that spring from eight of the twelve columns, cutting across each corner in the manner of the Byzantine squinch. This all contributes to create what many consider to be one of Wren's finest church interiors. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner lists it as one of the ten most important buildings in England.

In 1760 a new organ was provided by George England.

In 1776 the central window in the east wall was bricked up to allow for the installation of Devout Men Taking Away the Body of St Stephen, a painting by Benjamin West, which the rector, Thomas Wilson, had commissioned for the church. The next year Wilson set up in the church a statue of Catharine Macaulay, (then still alive) whose political ideas he admired. It was removed after protests. The east window was unblocked, and the picture moved to the north wall, during extensive restorations in 1850.

Recent history

The present arrangement of the interior with the altar by Henry Moore.

The church suffered slight damage from bombing during the London Blitz of 1941 and was later restored. In 1954, the united parishes of St Mary Bothaw and St Swithin London Stone (merged in 1670) were themselves united with the parish of St Stephen.

The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.

In 1953 the Samaritans charity was founded by the rector of St Stephen's, Dr Chad Varah. The first Samaritans branch (known as Central London Branch) operated from a crypt beneath the church before moving to Marshall Street in Soho. In tribute to this, a telephone is preserved in a glass box in the church. The Samaritans began with this telephone, and today the voluntary organisation staffs a 24-hour telephone hot-line for people in emotional need.

In 1987, as part of a major programme of repairs and reordering, a massive white polished stone altar commissioned from the sculptor Henry Moore by churchwarden Peter Palumbo was installed in the centre of the church. Its unusual positioning required the authorisation of a rare judgment of the Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved. Benjamin West's Devout men taking away the body of St Stephen, previously hung on the north interior wall, was put into storage following the reordering. This decision was controversial, as the initial removal of the painting was illegal. In 2013 the church was given permission to sell the painting to a foundation, despite opposition from the London Diocesan Advisory Committee for the Care of Churches, and by the Church of England's Church Buildings Council. Prior to the painting's export, a temporary export bar was placed on it to give it a last chance to stay in the UK. The foundation has since loaned it to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which has undertaken restoration work on the painting, due to the poor maintenance of the painting while the church had it in storage.

On 14 July 1994, the church was the venue for the wedding of Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones to Daniel Chatto.

Rectors

• Peter 1301–2
• Hugh de Marny 1315
• Willian de Stansfield 1325–7
• Thomas Blundell 1350–9
• Robert Eleker 1351–85
• John Brown 1391–5
• John Horewood 1395–6
• Henry Chichele 1396–7. Later Archbishop of Canterbury
• John Horewood 1397–1400
• John Beachfount 1400–3
• Radman. Died 1419
• William Rock. Resigned 1422
• Thomas Southwell 1428–40
• William Trokill 1440–74
• Robert Rous 1474–9
• William Sutton 1479–1502
• John Young 1502
• John Kite 1522-–34
• Elisha Bodley 1534
• Thomas Becon
• William Ventris 1554–6
• Henry Pendleton 1556–7
• Humphrey Busby 1557–8
• Philip Pettit 1563 or 1564
• John Bendale 1563 or 1564

• Henry Wright 1564–72
• Henry Trippe 1572–1601
• Roger Fenton 1601–16
• Thomas Muriel 1615–25
• Aaron Wilson 1625-35
• Thomas Howell 1635–41
• Michael Thomas 1641–2
• Thomas Warren 1642
• Thomas Watson 1642–62. Sequestered.
• Robert Marriott 1662-89
• William Stonestreet 1689–1716
• Joseph Rawson 1716–19
• Joseph Watson 1719–37
• Thomas Wilson 1737–84
• George S. Townely 1784–1835
• George Croly 1835–61. Also a poet and novelist.
• William Windle 1861–99
• Robert Stuart de Corcy Laffan 1899–1927
• Charles Clark
• Chad Varah 1953–2003
• Peter Delany 2004–

Burials

• John Dunstaple
• John Vanbrugh

Gallery

• 

  Interior of St Stephen Walbrook 2007

• 

  The interior of St Stephen Walbrook today.

• 

  St Stephen Walbrook Ceiling 21st century

• 

  The organ over the west door

• 

  The wooden pulpit with its huge tester

• 

  The covered font

• 

  The dome and lantern seen from outside

The nearest London Underground station is Bank.

See also

• List of churches and cathedrals of London
• List of Christopher Wren churches in London

External links

• St Stephen Walbrook's parish website
• Church of England's St Stephen Walbrook page
• St Stephen Walbrook
• History of the Samaritans
• 360° panorama inside St Stephen Walbrook