Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Wikipedia
St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, also known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Holborn), is an Anglican church in the City of London. It is located on Holborn Viaduct, almost opposite the Old Bailey. In medieval times it stood just outside ("without") the now-demolished old city wall, near the Newgate.
The original Saxon church on the site was dedicated to St Edmund the King and Martyr. During the Crusades in the 12th century the church was renamed St Edmund and the Holy Sepulchre, in reference to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The name eventually became contracted to St Sepulchre.
The church is today the largest parish church in the City. It was completely rebuilt in the 15th century but was gutted by the Great Fire of London in 1666[1], which left only the outer walls, the tower and the porch standing. Modified in the 18th century, the church underwent extensive restoration in 1878. It narrowly avoided destruction in the Second World War, although the 18th-century watch-house in its churchyard (erected to deter grave-robbers) was completely destroyed and had to be rebuilt.
The interior of the church is a wide, roomy space with a coffered ceiling[2] installed in 1834. The north aisle is dominated by a splendid organ built by Renatus Harris in 1670[3].
During the reign of Mary I in 1555, St Sepulchre's vicar, John Rogers, was burned as a heretic.
St Sepulchre is one of the "Cockney bells" of London, named in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons as the "bells of Old Bailey". Traditionally, the great bell would be rung to mark the execution of a prisoner at the nearby gallows at Newgate. The clerk of St Sepulchre's was also responsible for ringing a handbell outside the condemned man's cell in Newgate Prison to inform him of his impending execution. This handbell, known as the Execution Bell, now resides in a glass case to the south of the nave.
The church has been the official musicians' church for many years and is associated with many famous musicians. Its north aisle (formerly a chapel dedicated to Stephen Harding) is dedicated as the Musicians' Chapel, with four windows commemorating John Ireland, the singer Dame Nellie Melba, Walter Carroll and the conductor Sir Henry Wood respectively. Wood, who "at the age of fourteen, learned to play the organ" at this church [1] and later became its organist, also has his ashes buried in this church.
The south aisle of the church holds the regimental chapel of the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), and its gardens are a memorial garden to that regiment.
[edit] Notable people associated with the church
- John Smith, governor of Virginia and associate of Pocahontas: buried 1631.
- Sir Henry Wood, conductor
- Austin Osman Spare attended the church school, now a physiotherapy centre, behind the church in Snowhill Lane.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Samuel Pepys-The Shorter Pepys Latham,R(Ed) p484: Harmondsworth,1985 ISBN 0140094180
- ^ "London:the City Churches” Pevsner,N/Bradley,S New Haven, Yale, 1998 ISBN 0300096550
- ^ Pearce,C.W. “Notes on Old City Churches: their organs, organists and musical associations” London, Winthrop Rogers Ltd 1909
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- St Sepulchre-without-Newgate church website
Annotations
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St Sepulchre-Without-New-Gate
There is no saint called “Sepulchre”. The church which stood on this site was originally dedicated to St. Edmund the Martyr - King of East Anglia. At the time of the Crusades the church was known as “St. Edmund and the Holy Sepulchre” and eventually “St. Sepulchre” - after the Holy Sepulchre of Christ in Jerusalem.
St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate is the largest church in the City of London. The tower and outer walls were built around 1450. Badly damaged in the Great Fire of 1666, the church was rebuilt by Wren’s masons in 1670-71. The ashes of Sir Henry Wood, founder of the Promenade Concerts - the longest running continuous series of orchestral concerts in the world - are interred in the Musicians’ Chapel where now can be found the Musicians’ Book of Remembrance containing the names of over two thousand professional musicians.
On the south wall there is a stained glass window commemorating Captain John Smith, the first Governor of the state of Virginia, USA, whose exploits included sailing to America in “the little ships” in 1607, where he was captured by Indians and freed by Princess Pocahontas. Smith died in 1631 and is buried in the south aisle. St. Sepulchre’s was the first London home of the School of English Church Music - now the RSCM - and the historic tower holds the twelve bells of the Old Bailey made famous by the nursery rhyme ‘Oranges and Lemons’.http://www.st-sepulchre.org.uk/history.htm