Christ Church Spitalfields, Hawksmoor London building restoration photo, Architect, Date
Christ Church Spitalfields Architecture
Nicholas Hawksmoor Building in East London, England, UK
23 Jun 2007
Location: Spitalfields, East End
Dates built: 1715-29
Design: Nicholas Hawksmoor Architect
photo © Nick Weall
Christ Church Spitalfields London
photos © Adrian Welch
Christ Church Spitalfields Restoration
Design: Purcell Miller Tritton Architects
Client: Friends of Christ Church Spitalfields
Christ Church Spitalfields Crypt project by Dow Jones Architects
Christ Church Spitalfields restoration architect : Purcell Miller Tritton
images © Adrian Welch
Christ Church Spitalfields architect : Nicholas Hawksmoor
Christ Church was built between the years 1714 and 1729 as part of the church building programme initiated by the Fifty New Churches act of 1711, backed by Queen Anne, which was implemented by four different Commissions.
At the time, there were fears that ‘godless thousands’ outside the City of London had no adequate church provision, and that non-conformists – including large numbers of French Huguenot silk weavers – were moving into Spitalfields and bringing their non-conformist worshipping ways with them.
The Commission appointed to build the 50 new churches stipulated that the new buildings should have tall spires so that they would tower above the smaller, non-conformist chapels! The idea was to fund the work through taxes on coal coming into London, although monies ran low in about 1719 and building progressed fitfully.
One of the two surveyors employed by the first Commission, at an initial rate of £200 per year, was Nicholas Hawksmoor – a Nottinghamshire-born architect who had worked with Sir Christopher Wren since his late teens. Of the 12 churches completed (out of the projected 50), six were the work of Hawksmoor, and this building was his masterpiece.
The church has seen at least two large-scale alterations, the first in 1866 (directed by the architect Ewen Christian) which changed the entire look of the interior, and the second which began in the 1960s and was only recently completed – a restoration of the church to its original state, which it was initially estimated would cost £1 million and in fact cost £10 million. Since reopening in 2004, the church has been visited by more than 100,000 people.
Famed for the eloquence of its stonework, Christ Church Spitalfields is also full of fascinating human stories. In the 1980s a project to excavate 1,000 bodies from its crypt helped to change the way archaeological dating is done.
It has been the site of scandal (a furore in the 1820s over the huge expense by Christ Church vestrymen on new furnishings saw the case going to Parliament, and laws changed on the power of vestries) and also of spectacle: in recent years the church has hosted many grand events including opera, classical music premieres, a documentary and dinner to celebrate the work of local artists Gilbert & George, and performances by pop acts Mika and The Feeling.
Christ Church Spitalfields website: https://spitalfields.church/ – external link
Location: Spitalfields, Northeast London, England, UK
London Buildings
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Another major Nicholas Hawksmoor Church Building
St Mary Woolnoth
photo © Adrian Welch
St-Martin-in-the-Fields
Dates built: 1722-26
Design: James Gibbs Architect
photo © Timothy Soar
St Martin-in-the-Fields Church at Trafalgar Square
London Church Architect: Christopher Wren
Shoreditch Hotel, East London
Design: AQSO arquitectos office
image Courtesy architecture office
Shoreditch Hotel Building
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