| St Dunstan-in-the-West | |
St Dunstan-in-the-West in 1842
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| Location | City of London |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Website | www.stdunstaninthewest.org |
| Architecture | |
| Architect(s) | John Shaw Sr. |
| Style | Neo-Gothic |
| Administration | |
| Diocese | London |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Clergy | |
| Bishop(s) | Richard Chartres |
| Archdeacon | David Meara |
| Rector | William Gulliford |
The Guild Church of St Dunstan-in-the-West is in Fleet Street in London, England. An octagonal-shaped building, it is dedicated to a former Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury.
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First founded between AD 988 and 1070, there is a possibility that a church on this site was one of the Lundenwic strand settlement churches, like St Martin's in the Fields, the first St Mary le Strand, St Clement Danes and St Brides. These churches may pre-date any within the walls of the city . It is not known exactly when the original church was built, but it was possibly erected by Saint Dunstan himself, or priests who knew him well. It was first mentioned in written records in 1185.[1] King Henry III gained possession of it and its endowments from Westminster Abbey by 1237 and then granted these and the advowson to the "House of Converts" i.e. of the converted Jews, which led to its neglect of its parochial responsibilities. This institution was eventually transformed into the Court of the Master of the Rolls.
The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers has been associated with the church since the 15th century. The company holds an annual service of commemoration to honour two of its benefactors, John Fisher and Richard Minge, after which children were traditionally given a penny for each time they ran around the church.
William Tyndale, the celebrated translator of the Bible, was a lecturer at the church and sermons were given by the poet John Donne. Samuel Pepys mentions the church in his diary.[2] The church narrowly escaped the Great Fire of London in 1666. The Dean of Westminster roused 40 scholars from Westminster School in the middle of the night, who formed a fire brigade which extinguished the flames with buckets of water to only three doors away.
In the 19th century the medieval church of St Dunstan was demolished to allow the widening of Fleet Street and a new church was built on its burial ground. An Act of Parliament was obtained authorising the demolition of the church in July 1829 and trustees were appointed to carry it into effect. In December 1829 and September 1830 there were auctions of some of the materials of the old church. The first stone of the new building, to the design of John Shaw, Sr. (1776–1832), was laid in July 1831 and construction proceeded rapidly. In August 1832 the last part of the old church was left as a screen between Fleet Street and the new work was removed.[3]
Shaw dealt with the restricted site by designing a church with an octagonal central space. Seven of the eight sides open into arched recesses, the northern one containing the altar. The eighth side opens into a short corridor, leading beneath the organ to the lowest stage of the tower, which serves as an entrance porch. Above the recesses Shaw designed a clerestory, and above that a groined ceiling. The tower is square in plan, with an octagonal lantern, resembling those of St Botolph, Boston, and St Helen's York. George Godwin Jr suggested that the form of the lantern might have been immediately inspired by that of St George's church in Ramsgate ( where Shaw was architect to the docks), built in 1825 to the designs of H.E. Kendall. [3] John Shaw Sr. died in 1833, before the church was completed, leaving it in the hands of his son John Shaw Jr (1803–1870).
The communion rail is a survivor of the old church, having been carved by Grinling Gibbons during the period when John Donne served as vicar (1624–1631). Some of the monuments from the medieval building were reinstituted in the new church and a fragment of the old churchyard remains between Clifford's Inn and Bream's Buildings.[4]
Apart from losing its stained glass, the church survived the London Blitz largely intact, though bombs did damage the open-work lantern tower.[5] The building was largely restored in 1950. An appeal is underway to commission appropriate bells for the church.[6]
The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.[7]
The church has often been associated with the legend of Sweeney Todd.
On the façade is a chiming clock, with figures of giants, perhaps representing Gog and Magog, who strike the bells with their clubs. It was installed on the previous church in 1671, perhaps commissioned to celebrate its escape from destruction by the Great Fire of 1666. It was the first public clock in London to have a minute hand. The figures of the two giants strike the hours and quarters, and turn their heads. There are numerous literary references to the clock, including in Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays, Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, and a poem by William Cowper. In 1828, when the medieval church was demolished, the clock was removed by Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford to his mansion in Regent's Park, which later became the St Dunstan's College for the Blind[8] It was returned by Lord Rothermere in 1935 to mark the Jubilee of King George V.
Above the entrance to the old parochial school in 1766, is a statue of Queen Elizabeth I, taken from the old Ludgate which was demolished at that time. This statue dating from 1586 and is contemporary with its subject and thought to be the oldest outdoor statue in London. In the porch below are three statues of ancient Britons also from the gate, probably meant to represent King Lud and his two sons.
Adjacent to Queen Elizabeth is a bust of Lord Northcliffe, the newspaper proprietor; co-founder of the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror. Next to Lord Northcliffe is a memorial tablet to James Louis Garvin, another pioneering British journalist.
St Dunstan-in-the-West is the only church in England to share its building with the Romanian Orthodox community. The chapel to the left of the main altar is closed off by an iconostasis, formerly from Antim monastery in Bucharest, dedicated in 1966.
The church has associations with many famous people: