St Mary Moorfields

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The church portal on Eldon Street

St Mary Moorfields , located on Eldon Street, is the only Roman Catholic church in the City of London . Its predecessor building on the corner of Blomfield Street and Finsbury Circus was the first larger Roman Catholic church to be built in London after the Catholic emancipation .

First church building on the corner of Blomfield Street and Finsbury Circus

Memorial plaque at the original location of the church

After the Catholic Relief Act of 1791 allowed Catholics in the UK to practice their faith in public again in the wake of the Catholic Emancipation , it was built on the northeast corner of the eastern driveway for £ 26,000 between 1817 and 1820 according to plans by the architect John Newman to Finsbury Circus and Blomfield Street a first larger church building in the classical style. This was opened in 1820. The church was the seat of the Apostolic Vicariate and from 1850 for a period of 19 years was the Procathedral of the Archdiocese of Westminster .

Deviating from the usual directional orientation of Catholic churches, the choir was not in the east, but in the west. Access was through the portico on the east side from Blomfield Street. This was formed from two free-standing Corinthian columns together with flanking antenna structures; In the crowning triangular pediment he showed a cross with bas-reliefs of female figures symbolizing faith and piety on his sides.

The south long side of the church ran along the east driveway of Finsbury Circus.

The three naves of the church were initially separated from each other by arcades supported by five pillars with fighters at the transition to the arch, and later columns with elaborately designed capitals . The main nave was covered with a vaulted ceiling, while the narrow aisles were covered with flat ceilings.

A fresco on the arched rear wall of the sanctuary, which was executed by Agostino Aglio , showed the Calvary . In front of the back wall was an architrave designed by the Milanese sculptor Giovanni Battista Comolli (1775–1831), carried by six marble columns that were modeled on the columns at the Lysicrates Monument in Athens and surrounding the altar on the back , which hid the roof windows of the apse from the view of the church visitors and thus ensured effective lighting of the back wall of the chancel with its monumental fresco. Newman had specially traveled to Central Europe in search of a solution for the desired indirect lighting; he found the inspiration for his solution in the Lady Chapel of the Church of St-Sulpice de Paris . The marble altar, also made by Comolli, was shaped like a sarcophagus, flanked by two angel figures that supported the canteen of the altar. There was a large tabernacle on the altar .

The Newman building was judged unfavorably by Augustus Pugin , because he believed nothing to be found that reminded him of the old religion (meaning the Roman Catholic religion). Pugin even dismissed the church as a “theater” and “the work of a Protestant architect”. The entrance area nevertheless served as a model for the Roman Catholic Church of St John the Baptist in Brighton, built (and preserved) according to plans by William Hallett in 1835 .

The interior of the church was redesigned in 1852 according to plans by the Catholic architect Charles Parker (1799-1881) and from 1857 to 1858 under the direction of Charles Kuckuck. At least after the redesign, the arcades between the naves were supported by columns with imitation marble. Overall, the redesign served to Italianize the church, which was more in line with the taste of Cardinal Wiseman .

The construction was abandoned in 1899, after which the building site was sold as a contribution to the financing of Westminster Cathedral . Six marble columns from the old church have been reused in the construction of the new, smaller church on Eldon Street. The stained glass stained glass windows with biblical motifs were moved to St Joseph's School Chapel in Islington , two of which survived World War II. It is also believed that a black marble basin that is in the same church also comes from the first building of St Mary Moorfields. The organ of the first St Mary's Church was rebuilt in 1905 in the newly constructed Ilford Presbyterian Church, Oakfield Road, Ilford .

Second church building on Eldon Street

Four years after the demolition of the old church , the current building was opened on March 15, 1903, during the tenure of Cardinal Herbert Vaughan on Eldon Street , the next street following Finsbury Circus to the north. The architect of the new building was George Sherrin .

Due to the narrow front width between the adjoining commercial buildings, no standard church facade could be erected on Eldon Street. The church portal is therefore inserted between two shops, in a facade that looks more like an ordinary shop front. The portal including the associated building sculpture is made of Portland stone . The figure of the Virgin Mary with Child and the two angels crowning her was created by John Daymond . This church is not aligned between West and East as usual. The choir with the tabernacle is to the north so that from the portal on the north side of Eldon Street, the visitor to the church can see in a direct line to the place where the holy of holies is kept. The choir of the church is based on the old Newman building; the six marble columns removed from the old church are grouped behind the altar in a similar way. The church in Eldon Street has only two aisles, the main nave is divided to the west by a narrower arcade supported by polished columns. The church is not exposed to light through windows in the side walls, but through skylights in the ceiling of the main nave, which is similar to a flat barrel vault. The aisle is covered by a one-hip barrel.

Originally this church was in the London Borough of Hackney . Since a new border was drawn between the boroughs of Hackney and the City of London with effect from April 1, 1994, St Mary is in the area of ​​the City of London, as the borough border shifted from the portal to the choir side. The church is the last remaining of a series of places of worship that are located in the Finsbury Circus Conservation Area , a historic monument around Finsbury Circus that stretches from London Wall to the south, Moorgate to the west, Eldon Street to the north and Blomfield Street to the East is limited, found.

organ

The organ was built at the end of the 19th century by the organ builders Corps & Son (Finsbury Park) and restored in 1959 by the organ builder Mander. The purely mechanical instrument has 12 registers on two manuals and a pedal.

I Great Organ C – g 3
1. Open diapason 8th'
2. Claribel 8th'
3. Dulciana 8th'
4th Principal 4 ′
5. Harmonic flute 4 ′
6th (vacant)
II Swell Organ C – g 3
7th Stopped diapason 8th'
8th. Gamba 8th'
9. Voix Celeste 8th'
10. Forest flood 4 ′
11. oboe 8th'
Pedal C – f 1
12. Bourdon 16 ′

Others

Vincent Novello was the Church organist from 1840 to 1843.

The composer Carl Maria von Weber was buried in the first church building on June 21, 1826 , and the composer and double bass virtuoso Domenico Dragonetti was also buried in the first building of the church. Dragonetti's remains were reburied in the Catholic cemetery in Wembley on the occasion of the demolition of the first church, whereas Weber's body was transferred to Dresden in 1844.

gallery

  • First building - interior during a Christmas mass

  • First building - floor plan

  • First building - facade to Blomfield Street

  • First building - side view

  • The Madonna created by John Daymond

  • Second building - floor plan

Web links

Commons : St Mary Moorfields  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b History of St Mary Moorfields on the church website
  2. ↑ a b c d Roderick O'Donnell: The Interior of St Mary Moorfields . In: The Georgian Group Journal, Volume VII 1997, pp. 71-74.
  3. ^ A b c Paul Middleton, Leight Hatts: London City Churches . Bankside Press, London 2003, ISBN 0-954-57050-2 , pp. 72f. [1]
  4. ↑ Country life, Volume 182, Snippet available from googlebooks at [2]
  5. ↑ Thomas H. Shepherd: London Interiors: a grand national exhibition of the religious, regal and civic solemnities, public amusements, scientific meetings and commercial scenes of the British capital… . Joseph Meat, London 1848, p. 56 [3]
  6. ↑ a b c Denis Evinson: Catholic Churches of London , Sheffield 1998, pp. 29-30. ISBN 1-850-75819-0
  7. ^ Foreword by Roderick O'Donnell to a reprint by Augustus Pugin: The Present State of Ecclesiastical Architecture in England and Some Remarks Relative to Ecclesiastical Architecture and Decoration . Dolman, London 1840, reprinted by Gracewing Publishing 2004, foreword on page XIX, [4]
  8. ^ Roderick O'Donnell: The Pugins and the Catholic Midlands by Rory . Gracewing, 2002, p. 9
  9. ↑ Excerpt from the English Heritage Review of Diocesan Churches 2005 (PDF) ( Memento of October 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ John Timbs: Curiosities of London: Exhibiting the most rare and remarkable objects of interest in the metropolis, with nearly sixty years' personal recollections . J. S. Virtue, London 1867, pp. 231f. [5]
  11. ↑ a b Denis Evinson: Catholic Churches of London . Sheffield 1998, pp. 132-133. ISBN 1-850-75819-0
  12. ^ WR Powell (ed.): A History of the County of Essex . Volume 5, 1966, pp. 249ff., Available on the British History Online website
  13. ^ Finsbury Circus Conservation Area Character Summary of the Administration of the City of London ( Memento of October 8, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ↑ information on organ (English)
  15. ^ Entry Novellos in the Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
  16. ^ Max Maria von Weber : Carl Maria von Weber . P. 711 ff.
  17. ^ Carl Ferdinand Pohl: Mozart and Haydn in London . Vienna 1867, p. 307.

Remarks

  1. ↑ See the drawings of the first building in the gallery section and the contemporary photographs linked under web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 31 ′ 7.6 ″  N , 0 ° 5 ′ 8.6 ″  W.