St Stephen Walbrook
Encyclopedia : S : ST : STS : St Stephen Walbrook
St. Stephen, Walbrook is a small church in the City of London, part of the Church of England's Diocese of London. It is located at 39 Walbrook Street, EC4, near the Bank and Monument Underground stations.
Dating back to a Saxon church from the 7th century, this church is on the former site of the River Walbrook and was built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1672-80. It suffered slight bomb damage during World War II and was later restored.
The 63 feet high dome is based on Wren's original design for St Pauls, and this is centered over a square of twelve columns. The circular base of the dome is not carried, in the conventional way, by pendentives formed above the arches of the square, but on a circle formed by eight arches that spring from eight of the twelve columns, cutting across each corner in the manner of the Byzantine squinch. This all contributes to create what many consider to be one of Wren's finest church interiors. Nowadays, it has two claims to fame:
- Henry Moore's controversial massive white polished stone altar, commissioned by a property developer Lord Palumbo and installed in 1987, which sits unusually in the centre of the church.
- A telephone in a glass box, a tribute to the founding of the Samaritans (charity) at the church by the rector, Dr Chad Varah, in 1953. This voluntary organisation began with this telephone, and today staffs a 24-hour telephone hot-line for people in emotional need. The first Samaritans branch (known as Central London Branch) operated from a crypt beneath the church before moving to Marshall Street in Soho.
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.