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36-715: Christ Church Greyfriars , also known as Christ Church Newgate Street, was a church in Newgate Street, opposite St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London . Established as a monastic church in the thirteenth century, it became a parish church after the Dissolution of the Monasteries . Following its destruction in the Great Fire of London of 1666, it was rebuilt to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren . Except for

72-431: A brightly lit interior. The east end had trinity windows, a large wooden altar screen and a carved hexagonal pulpit, reached by stairs. There was elaborate carved wainscoting . A pavement of reddish brown and grey marble to the west of the altar rails was said to date from the original gothic church. Galleries stood over the north and south aisles, built at special request of the officers of Christ's Hospital as seating for

108-581: A reorganisation of Church of England parishes in London, authorities decided not to rebuild Christ Church. The remains of the church were designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950. In 1954, the Christ Church parish was merged with that of the nearby St Sepulchre-without-Newgate . The steeple, still standing after the wartime damage, was disassembled in 1960 and put back together using modern construction methods. The surviving lower part of

144-461: A total cost of £11,778 9s. 7¼d. Smaller than the gothic structure, the building measured 114 feet (35 m) long and 81 feet (25 m) wide, occupying only the eastern end of the site of the medieval church, the western part becoming its churchyard. The tower, rising from the west end of the church, had a simple round-arched main entranceway and, above, windows decorated with neoclassical pediments. Large carved pineapples, symbols of welcome, graced

180-639: The Chamberlain's Soke lying just outside Newgate, forming part of the ward of Farringdon Without . Excavations in 1875, 1903 and 1909 revealed the Roman structure and showed that it consisted of a double roadway between two square flanking guardroom towers. From the 12th century, the gate was used as a prison for debtors and felons. Jack Cade was beheaded publicly in Newgate after the conclusion of his failed rebellion . The notorious Newgate Prison ,

216-602: The 1640s, Christ Church was the church of the Presbyterian polemicist Thomas Edwards , and during May 1647 became a centre of operations for attempts to disband and pay arrears to members of the New Model Army. The medieval church was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666. Reconstruction was assigned to Wren, who oversaw a decades long programme to rebuild St. Paul's Cathedral and approximately 50 parish churches. There appears to have been some debate about

252-550: The City to Horsham , West Sussex , ending the Sunday influx of its schoolboys. A new vicar, T.R. Hine-Haycock, took over in 1912. A July 1922 Christ Church newsletter preserved at Guildhall Library shows that at that time it had an 8:30 a.m. Holy Communion service every Sunday, and musical services at 11 a.m. every first and third Sunday.The church was open daily for private prayer from noon to 3 p.m. In its final years,

288-597: The Tower , Queen of Scotland. The heart of Eleanor of Provence , wife of Henry III , was also interred there. Richard Whittington , Lord Mayor of London, founded a library in connection with the church in 1429. The monastery was dissolved in 1538 during the English Reformation . The building and fittings suffered heavy damage in this period. Tombs disappeared, sold for their marble and other valuable materials; monuments were defaced. In 1546, Henry VIII gave

324-406: The church. The Christ's Hospital boys continued to attend services, sitting in the galleries. According to the pre-war guide book to the church, they included the young Samuel Coleridge and Charles Lamb . Sixth Form boys tasked with maintaining order sat in special seats placed over those of the younger students. A few boys carved initials in the woodwork. In 1902, Christ's Hospital moved out of

360-542: The congregation continued to drop in size, a common trend for City churches as people relocated to suburban neighbourhoods of London . Parish records at the Guildhall Library show there were 112 members in April 1933, mostly residents of places outside the parish boundaries. Many of those who made their homes in the parish were "housekeepers", people who lived in and looked after commercial buildings. In April 1937,

396-405: The cover of the finely carved wooden font, recovered by an unknown fireman who ran inside as the flames raged. The roof and vaulting collapsed into the nave; the tower and four main walls, made of stone, remained standing but were smoke-scarred and gravely weakened. A photograph taken the following day shows two firemen hosing down smouldering rubble in the nave . In 1944, The Times wrote about

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432-429: The financial firm Merrill Lynch completed a regional headquarters complex on land abutting to the north and the west. In conjunction with that project, the Christ Church site underwent a major renovation and archeological examination, King Edward Street was returned to its former course, and the site of the church regained its pre-war footprint. The churchyard was spruced up and its metal railings restored. In 2006, work

468-439: The form the new Christ Church should take. A surviving unused design shows a structure considerably larger than the one eventually built. The parish was united with that of St Leonard, Foster Lane , which was not rebuilt Parishioners raised £1,000 to begin work on the design. To save time and money, the foundations of the gothic church were partially reused. The new church and tower (without steeple) were completed in 1687, at

504-489: The four roof corners of the main church structure. Unique among the Wren churches, the east and west walls had buttresses. The interior was divided into nave and aisles by Corinthian columns, raised on tall plinths so that their bases were level with the gallery floors. The aisles had flat ceilings, while the nave had a shallow cross-vault. The north and south walls had large round-arched windows of clear glass, which allowed for

540-414: The main reception rooms. The Palace of Versailles contains many fine examples of white painted boiseries with gilded mouldings installed in the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI . The panels were not confined to just the walls of a room but were used to decorate doors, frames, cupboards, and shelves also. It was standard for mirrors to be installed and framed by the carved boiseries , especially above

576-455: The mantelpiece of a fireplace. Paintings were also installed within boiseries , above doorways or set into central panels. Wood wall panelling has seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years due to its aesthetic appeal, versatility, and sustainability. Traditionally used to insulate and decorate interiors, modern wood panelling includes wainscoting, beadboard, shiplap, board and batten, and both raised and flat panels. This renewed interest

612-519: The membership had dropped to 77. The church was severely damaged in the Blitz on 29 December 1940. During one of the Second World War 's fiercest air raids on London, a firebomb struck the roof and tore into the nave. Much of the surrounding neighbourhood was also set alight—a total of eight Wren churches burned that night. At Christ Church, the only fitting known to have been saved was

648-432: The middle one with a freestanding Ionic colonnade. Over the course of the church’s existence, significant modifications were made. In 1760, a vestry house was built against the facade’s south side and part of the church's south wall. At some point, rooms were enclosed in the north and south aisles beneath the galleries. Stained glass depicting Jesus with the children was installed in the centre trinity window to replace

684-456: The north. A notable discovery here was a Roman tile inscribed with a disgruntled comment that "Austalis has been going off on his own for 13 days". The Roman road continued along High Holborn and Oxford Street , via the Devil's Highway to Silchester and Bath To the north of the street are the public gardens around the ruins of Christ Church Greyfriars (bombed during World War II) on

720-474: The original clear glass. The church functioned as an important centre of City of London society and music. The Lord Mayor attended an annual service to hear the Ancient Spital Sermon on the second Wednesday after Easter, placing his ceremonial sword in a special holder. Felix Mendelssohn played Bach 's A minor fugue and other works on the organ in 1837. Samuel Wesley also performed at

756-522: The plural boiseries ) is the French term used to define ornate and intricately carved wood panelling. Boiseries became popular in the latter part of the 17th century in French interior design , becoming a de rigueur feature of fashionable French interiors throughout the 18th century. Such panels were most often painted in two shades of a chosen color or in contrasting colors, with gilding reserved for

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792-478: The priory and its church, along with the churches of St Nicholas Shambles and St Ewin, Newgate Market , to the City Corporation. A new parish of Christ Church was created, incorporating those of St Nicholas and St Ewin, and part of that of St Sepulchre. The priory buildings later housed Christ's Hospital school, founded by Edward VI, and the church became its pupils' principal place of worship. In

828-862: The room from the stone and reflecting radiant heat from wood fires, making heat more evenly distributed in the room. In more modern buildings , such panelling is often installed for decorative purposes . Panelling, such as wainscoting and boiserie in particular, may be extremely ornate and is particularly associated with 17th and 18th century interior design , Victorian architecture in Britain , and its international contemporaries. The term wainscot ( UK : / ˈ w eɪ n s k ə t / WAYN -skət or US : / ˈ w eɪ n s k ɒ t / WAYN -skot ) originally applied to high quality riven oak boards. Wainscot oak came from large, slow-grown forest trees, and produced boards that were knot-free, low in tannin , light in weight, and easy to work with. It

864-538: The ruins of Christ Church The time will come – much sooner than most of us to-day can visualise – when no trace of death from the air will be left in the streets of rebuilt London. At such a time the story of the blitz may begin to seem unreal not only to visiting tourists but to a new generation of Londoners. It is the purpose of war memorials to remind posterity of the reality of the sacrifices upon which its apparent security has been built. These church ruins, we suggest, would do this with realism and gravity. In 1949, in

900-408: The same name, used for that purpose; and although that has long been superseded by the introduction of fir timber, the term has been continued notwithstanding the change of material. Today the term wainscot refers commonly to the different treatment of the lower part of the wall (roughly a meter, 3–4 feet); see also dado . Boiserie ( French pronunciation: [bwazʁi] ; often used in

936-412: The school's students. Pews were said to have been made from the timbers of a wrecked Spanish galleon . The organ, on the west wall over the main nave door, was built by Renatus Harris in 1690, according to a pre-war guide to the church. The steeple, standing about 160 feet (49 m) tall, was finished in 1704 at an additional cost of £1,963, 8s. 3½ d. It has three diminishing storeys, square in plan,

972-490: The site of a medieval Franciscan monastery. To the south is Paternoster Square leading towards St Paul's Cathedral . 51°30′53.09″N 0°6′1.22″W  /  51.5147472°N 0.1003389°W  / 51.5147472; -0.1003389 Listed clockwise from the West Wainscoting Panelling was developed in antiquity to make rooms in stone buildings more comfortable both by insulating

1008-413: The south wall and the entire east wall were demolished in 1962 to make way for a widening of King Edward Street . In 1981, neo-Georgian brick offices were constructed against the southwest corner of the ruins, in imitation of the 1760 vestry house that had stood there. In 1989, the former nave area became a public garden and memorial. The tower's lower levels functioned as commercial rental space. In 2002,

1044-435: The tower, the church was largely destroyed by bombing during the Second World War . The decision was made not to rebuild the church; the ruins are now a public garden. Christ Church Greyfriars had its origins in the conventual church of a Franciscan monastery , the name 'Greyfriars' being a reference to the grey habits worn by Franciscan friars. The first church on the site was built in the mid-thirteenth century, but this

1080-469: The walls with boards A 'wainscot' was therefore a board of riven (and later quarter-sawn ) oak, and wainscoting was the panelling made from it. During the 18th century, oak wainscot was almost entirely superseded for panelling in Europe by softwoods (mainly Scots pine and Norway spruce ), but the name stuck: The term wainscoting, as applied to the lining of walls, originated in a species of foreign oak of

1116-487: Was completed to convert the tower and spire into a modern twelve-level private residence. The nave area continues as a memorial; the wooden font cover, topped by a carved angel, can today be seen in the porch of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate . [REDACTED] Media related to Christ Church Greyfriars at Wikimedia Commons 51°30′56.94″N 0°5′56.93″W  /  51.5158167°N 0.0991472°W  / 51.5158167; -0.0991472 Newgate Newgate

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1152-550: Was later extended to the south on the site of the modern Central Criminal Court on Old Bailey. The gate was demolished in 1767. Newgate Street, today part of the A40 London to Fishguard route , is mostly located within the city wall, leading west from Cheapside to the site of the old gate, and then continuing onto Holborn Viaduct at the point where the Old Bailey thoroughfare joins to the south and Giltspur Street to

1188-462: Was once thought that Newgate was "New" since it was built after the Roman period, but archaeological evidence has shown that it was of Roman origin; it is therefore possible that the gate was named so when the Ludgate became less used, due to the building of the fourth St Paul's Cathedral in the early medieval period. It was previously known as Chamberlains Gate, there was a landholding referred to as

1224-523: Was one of the historic seven gates of the London Wall around the City of London and one of the six which date back to Roman times . Newgate lay on the west side of the wall and the road issuing from it headed over the River Fleet to Middlesex and western England. Beginning in the 12th century, parts of the gate buildings were used as a gaol , which later developed into Newgate Prison . It

1260-575: Was preferred to home-grown oak, especially in the Netherlands and British Isles, because it was a far superior product and dimensionally stable. The Oxford English Dictionary states that it derives from the Middle Low German wagenschot as well as wageschot or 'wall-board'. Johnson's Dictionary defined it thus: Wainscot [ wageschot , Dutch], the inner wooden covering of a wall. To wainscot [ waegenschotten , Dutch], to line

1296-438: Was soon replaced by a much larger building, begun in the 1290s and finished in about 1360. This new church was the second largest in medieval London, measuring 300 feet (91 m) long and 89 feet (27 m) wide, with at least eleven altars. It was built partly at the expense of Marguerite of France , second wife of King Edward I . She was buried at the church, as was Isabella , widow of Edward II and her daughter Joan of

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