All Saints, Poplar
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All Saints, Poplar |
|
| Denomination | Church of England (Anglican) |
|---|---|
| Administration | |
| Parish | Poplar |
| Deanery | Tower Hamlets Deanery |
| Diocese | Diocese of London |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Clergy | |
| Vicar | Revd. Dr. John Seymour |
| Other | |
| Organist | Brian Hagger |
| Churchwarden | Philippa Downs |
| Churchwarden | Fred Lawrence |
| Website | Official website of All Saints |
All Saints' Church, Poplar (Poplar Parish church) was designed by the architect Charles Hollis and built 1821-3 to serve the newly created parish of Poplar. The address is Newby Place, London, E14. The foundation stone was laid in 1821. On 29th March 1821 the Foundation Stone for this magnificent Church was laid by the Bishop of London and during the grand ceremony the first Rector, the Revd. Samuel Hoole, declared:
“We meet here to found an edifice which we trust will endure for many generations, dedicated to the worship and service of our invisible Creator and constant Benefactor; an edifice in which the doctrine of the Redeemer of mankind may be faithfully inculcated, the duties of Christian morality earnestly enforced, and the principles of Peace, Order and Happiness be disseminated among every class of the Community.”
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Early history
The true foundations had been laid 425 years earlier, when in 1396, the small village of ‘Popelar’ with Blackwall had been granted to the Cistercian monks of the Abbey of St Mary de Graces just by the Tower of London, and came to be known as one of the Tower Hamlets in the parish of Stepney. The settlements provided some of the labour-force for the expanding City of London, including the militiamen at the Tower, as well as crops and livestock from the newly drained marshland. By the time the land was sold off to private families under Henry VIII, the Blackwall area had also established a thriving shipbuilding and repairing industry.[1]
[edit] 17th century
St Dunstan’s Stepney was then the Parish Church and baptismal records from the early 1600’s show that just over half the fathers in Poplar were occupied in river or sea trades. In 1614 the spice traders of the East India Company set up their main shipyard at Blackwall with their headquarters in Poplar, served by a company Chapel (now St Matthias Church) build in 1652 on Poplar High Street.
Despite the ravages of plague, the population continued to grow, added to which there was an influx of Huguenot refugees to the area in 1685 who specialised in silk manufacture and weaving, starting the continuing tradition of the cloth trade in the East End.
[edit] 19th century
At the beginning of the 19th Century, to escape the heavy duties levied on cargoes discharged within the City itself, massive capital expenditure was risked in the building of docks eastward of the Pool of London. In 1800 the West India Dock was dug out manually across the northern reach of the Isle of Dogs, principally by Irish immigrant labourers. The dock companies built the main road in 1803 (now Commercial Road and East India Dock Road) between Aldgate and Poplar and in 1806 the East India Dock itself was opened. The new construction work destroyed many homes and impoverished the lives of the local inhabitants. Subsequent employment at the docks and wharves was always subject to the vagaries of the weather and of market forces. However by 1811 the population of Blackwall and Poplar was over 7,000 and in the next 50 years it increased to 43,000.
A new wealthy class of merchants began to move into the area and in 1817 Parliament enacted a law which made Poplar a Parish in its own right. We still have a book sealed in the reign of George III setting out the rights and responsibilities of the new Parish. Among its pages is the statement “that the Rector retains the right to close off the East India Dock Road to prevent noise during the time of Divine Service”!
The new Poplar Council set about acquiring a suitable plot of land on which to build a Parish Church with adjoining graveyard and Rectory. The site eventually purchased consisted of a house, garden and field owned by Mrs Ann Newby and in 1820 the Council invited designs for a building that would reflect Poplar’s new independence and prosperity. Of the 36 that were received, the design by Mr Charles Hollis was chosen. He had recently been appointed architect of the new parish church at Windsor, which is in contrasting gothic style. A relatively expensive church for the period, All Saints’ was built from granite and Portland stone by Mr Thomas Morris, a local man (whose grave lies outside to the north of the Church door) using the architect’s original scale model which is on display in the Church. The whole project cost just over £33,000, paid for out of the rates and with loans from two parishioners, John Stock and George Green, supplanted a year or so later by a loan on better terms from the West India Dock Company. The Church was consecrated on 3rd July 1823, and the living established under the patronage of Brasenose College, Oxford.
The first Rector used to be driven to Divine Service from the Rectory in a horse and carriage! His successor is buried immediately opposite the front door of the Church and gave his name to Bazely Street (originally known as Bow Lane). The Ionic columns of the portico are surmounted by a façade of more Corinthian style rising to an elegant steeple about 160 feet high. The tower supports a peal of ten bells, originally supplied at a cost of £1,060 and still rung by our own band of bell ringers.
Inside the Church there were grand galleries on all sides and a pulpit which could be cranked up and raised in height for the benefit of large congregations. Above the original organ (which had been installed at a cost of £675) there were additional galleries to accommodate the children of the Poor Law Institute. One of the six Beadle’s staffs which were used to keep the children in order is still on show in the Church. The status of All Saints’ as a Civic Church was marked by the royal coat of arms now to be seen on the organ gallery, but which was originally positioned on the capital over the altar. The small altar was made of cast iron and contained a chest for valuables; it is now to be found in the Sacrament Chapel on the north side of the sanctuary. The altar was embellished at a later date by Martin Travers, who also designed the tabernacle for the reserved sacrament. Behind the altar was a stained glass window, the design of which was criticised so much that it is said the artist committed suicide. It was soon covered by a curtain and eventually bricked up altogether in the 1890’s, at which time under the influence of the Oxford Movement the Church took on a High Church Catholic style. Great steps were built up to the new carved high altar which was commissioned from Oberammergau by the Rector, the Revd Arthur Chandler, later Bishop of Bloemfontein.
Thirty years earlier his predecessor, The Revd Thomas Nowell, had to respond to a different influence - the sudden collapse in 1866 of some major city investment banks which resulted in the swift demise of the local shipyard industry, tragically followed by the great cholera epidemic in the same year. The gentry began to vacate Poplar for the healthier climes east of London. An elegant brass plaque at the east end of the Church honours the Rector for his tireless work trying to improve the social condition of his increasingly poor parishioners. This tradition of local Church involvement and support continued over the period of great social change at the turn of the century with the growing political activism of working people.
[edit] 20th century
In the recession years of the 1920’s, which affected the docks particularly, All Saints’ Church reflected the times again by simplifying its ritual and decoration; the interior was painted white and the old adjustable pulpit was removed.
The Church took a leading role in cementing the community of this targeted area of dockland during the Blitz of the Second World War. Many of the finest edifices of Poplar were destroyed and bombs constantly damaged the Church building, although this did not dissuade hundreds of people from using the Crypt as an air-raid shelter. Late on in the war however, a V2 rocket devastated the building, destroying the east end and bringing down the roof. Post-war restoration in the 1950’s saw the removal of the galleries and the placing of a new organ gallery at the west end, equipped with choir stalls and housing the large reconditioned organ brought from Clapham Congregational Church. Structurally the roof had to be supported by a high steel grid masked by four substantial pillars and the plaster-covered beams in the ceiling. The restored high altar was placed under a new and massive baldacchino, but more recently this canopy has been cut in half and the front section placed against the east wall to form a kind of reredos. A restoration appeal in the 1980’s was launched to carry out essential repair work to the tower and outside of the Church, whilst the redecoration of the inside took place in 1991 through the voluntary efforts of parishioners and by means of an anonymous donation of labour and scaffolding from a local builder. The Churchyard was re-landscaped and totally refurbished with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund in 1999.
In 1971 the Parish of Poplar was formally established as the first Team Ministry in the London Diocese, combining nine different parishes in an area now recognised as one of the poorest in terms of overcrowding, unemployment and multiple deprivation, all under the shadow of the Canary Wharf development. A modern parish centre has been created out of the crypt space below the Church, from which bodies were removed in 1989 and re-interred in the Parish Guild Ground at the East London Cemetery. In order to construct the new crypt centre the pews had to be temporarily removed and the Church floor broken up. This was replaced by a modern steel and concrete structure and a new floor incorporating a heating and air-conditioning system. The Crypt can be used for meetings and conferences - details of terms can be obtained from the Parish Office. In 1999 the decision was taken to re-open St Nicholas Church on the Aberfeldy Estate and a growing congregation now worships there.
