UAH Archives, Special Collections, and Digital Initiatives

Legacy of Sir Christopher Wren and his City Churches

Jace L. Nixon, Spring 2024

Over time, churches have held significant importance to society and a reminder of where we come from. When natural disasters strike, destroyed buildings, including churches, are common. In 1666, a great fire swept across London, leveling the city. This led to the destruction of 87 London city churches. When the time came to rebuild the city, parliament created a commission to rebuild the city churches that had the archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop of London, and Lord Mayor of London sitting on it. The Commission tasked Sir Christopher Wren with the day-to-day business of the rebuilding of the churches. In the end, the commission chose 51 churches to be rebuilt after the combining of many parishes. In the present time, many of these churches still stand. This essay aims to focus on the legacy of Sir Christopher Wren and his city churches over 350 years after the Great Fire.

This essay is not to discuss Sir Christopher Wren's involvement in the rebuilding of the city churches following the Great Fire in 1666, but rather the legacy of the churches he rebuilt as the King's Surveyor of Works. It will also not discuss design choices in detail as well because in most cases, it does not affect the legacy of the churches.

Due to the varying definitions of Wren's city churches, the working definition the project uses is that the Great Fire had to destroy the church and the Commission had led the charge on the rebuilding of the parish. This eliminates parishes like St. Sepulchre because the vestry rebuilt this parish.

As time passed, the 51 parishes have faced many threats to their existence. To this day, 24 parishes still exist in some form in London with 27 of the parishes destroyed for one reason or another. Below lists the number of churches demolished over time:

1780-1800: 1

1800-1820: 1

1820-1840: 1

1840-1860: 2

1860-1900: 13

1900-1920: 1

1920-1941: 8

The churches were demolished for several reasons during the last few centuries. Some of these reasons were decrepitude, dwindling congregations or to accommodate other building expansions in London. To accompany that, there are two spikes in destruction of churches: 1860 through 1900 and 1920 through 1941.

The Union of Benefices Act of 1860 led to the spike of destroyed churches during 1860-1900. The growth in the demand for London infrastructure with the declining population as people moved to the suburbs led to the surplus of churches that the city needed to simplify. The act allowed for the demolition of churches after parishes combined, leading to the destruction of 13 Wren churches.

World War II caused the next spike in demolition of churches. During the blitz in 1940, the bombs destroyed many churches across London. Many of Wren's churches were either spared entirely or had less damage than many others. This is because Wren designed most of his churches to be plain on the outside to save money for the interior designs. Many of his churches were also entirely destroyed. In the 1950s, the Church Commission met to discuss which city churches they would restore after the blitz. They chose for the restoration of most of Wren's churches, with the other 8 either closing permanently or merging with another parish nearby.

St. Mary Aldermanbury stands as a unique case of churches destroyed in WW II. Originally, the Church Commission had chosen for the parish to be "restored as soon as practicable" (The National Archives of the UK) in 1954. The Church Commissioners had discussed re-erecting the church in Syndey in 1951 but the Royal Fine Art Commission won out to have it restored in London. However, as the 1960s came, the no effort to restore the church had occurred and it was on the verge of demolition. The college administrators at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri wanted to commemorate Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech. The administrators and Churchill agreed on relocating St. Mary Aldermanbury to the college grounds. This relocation process was completed in 1969 and the church is still there today to anyone coming to visit the Churchill Memorial.

Looking back to London, anyone can see Wren's memory in the existing churches to items in some of the museums. During our tours of London Museums, I kept an eye out for anything that mentioned Wren. The National Portrait Gallery contained a painting of him by Godfrey Kneller. The plaque describes him as a scientist and architect while discussing his career in these fields. The plaque does mention his involvement in the rebuilding of the city churches, with this portrait being painted to celebrate the completion of St. Paul's Cathedral.

I also got to see a chalice and paten that Ralph Leake designed for St. James Piccadilly, one of the new city churches Wren built after the fire, in the Victoria and Albert Museum. A priest would use the paten and chalice during the holy communion to hold the bread and wine. Since the priest uses them during a major part of the service, they set the tone of the parish. While this does not fall into the scope of the project since Wren did not design the pair nor does the church fit in the definition above, it is important to note that the plaque mentioned Wren as the designer of the church. It also says Leake designed the chalice and paten to complement the "richness of Wren's interior" (Victoria and Albert Museum).

As part of the project to explore the legacy of Wren's churches today, I completed a walking tour of a few of his churches that are still standing. The original group of churches selected were St. Peter Cornhill, St. Mary Abchurch, St. Lawrence Jewry, St. Benet Paul’s Wharf, and St. Paul's Cathedral. However, during the process of walking between these five churches, I ran across five more parishes by accident. When looking at the map of all 24 parishes that still exist, it becomes clear that they are all within about a mile of each other. This proximity leads to the accidental discovery of extra parishes. The plaques outside the churches gave a different level of information. Some gave some history of the church, while others only gave the name of the parish and basic information. Only half of the parishes clearly claimed Wren's involvement in the rebuilding of the church. I could not locate a plaque at St. Mary Woolnoth entirely, so I cannot speak on whether it clearly claims Wren's involvement on the outside of the building.

London has also done a decent job of preserving materials on the churches from Wren's time and onwards. For example, I got to access the National Archives and the Lambeth Palace Library during my time. The National Archives included primary sources like information on the rebuilding of St. Paul's to sources covering discussions and decisions over the fate of the city churches in the early to mid-20th century, as referenced earlier. Lambeth Palace Library contained some sources from Wren's time, including documents Wren signed. Guildhall Library also has an online archive that holds many drawings of the churches.A group called the Friends of the City Churches focuses on the preservation of all the churches in the City of London, where most of Wren's churches reside. Some churches also have their own archives for their church’s history, with St. Paul's Cathedral having an entire exhibit on Wren.

In conclusion, London holds onto a lot of the history of Wren's city churches after the Great Fire. While it may not be entirely easy to locate, most citizens in the city walk by his works regularly. Along the same vein, many archives, like the Lambeth Palace Library, preserved his documents where anyone could apply to have access to view them. Wren's legacy in the city lies with these churches as the main name associated with them over any of his colleagues who worked beside him to restore the city after such disaster.

The Great Fire Monument was designed by Robert Hooke in consultation of Wren. It was built between 1671-77 where St. Margaret Fish Street Hill used to stand. The plaque also includes information on St. Magnus the Martyr, which calls it a Wren church.

Credit: Jace L. Nixon, taken on the walking tour
St. Peter's Cornhill is one of Wren's existing parishes. The sign outside clearly states that it was rebuilt by Wren. The plaque also says the raised churchyard was mentioned in a Dickens poem.

Credit: Jace L. Nixon. taken on the walking tour
St. Michael Cornhill is one of Wren's existing churches. The plaque outside clearly states it is a combined parish with St. Peter Le Poer and St. Benet Fink (a previous Wren parish). It also openly claims Wren's construction but also states that Nicholas Hawksmoor built the tower.

Credit: Jace L. Nixon, taken while walking between city churches
St. Mary Woolnoth is one of the city churches Wren rebuilt. This church is not clearly labeled on the outside but resembles Wren's churches.

Credit: Jace L. Nixon, taken while walking between city churches
St. Mary Abchurch is one of Wren's churches still standing. It is home to "The Friends of the City Churches".

Credit: Jace L. Nixon, taken on the walking tour
St. Lawrence Jewry is the official church of the City of London Corporation. A plaque outside the church states it was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren following the Great Fire. The plaque also states that while it was destroyed in December 1940, it was restored in 1957, following the Wren design. It was also repaired snd conserved in 2023.

Credit: Jace L. Nixon, taken on the walking tour
St. Mary Aldermary is a city church that is now a guild church. It is clearly labeled as a church build by Wren's office after the Great Fire in 1679-82. It also states how it follows the old medieval outline with plaster fan vaulted ceilings.

Credit: Jace L. Nixon, taken while walking between city churches
St. Nicholas Cole Abbey is now a Centre for Workplace Ministry in London. It holds lunchtime services for the community that works in that area of London today.

Credit: Jace L. Nixon, taken while walking between parishes
A picture of St. Benet. Paul's Wharf. It is now a Metropolitan Welsh church in London. It was a part of the city church tour walk.

Credit: Jace L. Nixon
One of the city churches on the walking tour downtown. St. Paul's is the largest project Wren was on as it is the Cathedral of London.

Credit: Jace L. Nixon
This board is right around the corner from St. Paul's Cathedral. It mentions Sir Christopher Wren's design choices for the cathedral.

Credit: Jace L. Nixon, taken while walking between churches
A picture of one of the parishes that still stands today. The sign at St. Martin labels it as a Wren parish, making it easy to locate as you walk down the street.

Credit: Jace L. Nixon, taken while walking in London
A portrait of Sir Christopher Wren at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The caption to the portrait states he started practicing architecture in 1660, around the same time he helped the founding of the Royal Society. It also states how he helped design over 50 parish churches and St. Pauls. The portrait was painted to celebrate the completion of St. Paul's rebuild.

Credit: Sir Godfrey Kneller, displayed in the National Portrait Gallery
A legal document stating to move forward with the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral. Sir Christopher Wren was one of the people who signed the document.

Credit: Lambeth Palace Library, MS 2872 ff. 46
This is a paten and chalice on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The label mentions how it was designed to match one of Sir. Christopher Wren's interior church design.

Credit: Created by Ralph Leake, at the Victoria and Albert Museum on loan by the Vicar and Churchwardens of St. James Picadilly