St Etheldreda's Church

St Etheldreda’s Church stands in Ely Place, a quiet lane off Charterhouse Street in Holborn, London. Built in the late 13th century as the private chapel of the Bishops of Ely, it is one of only two surviving London buildings from the reign of Edward I. The church honours Æthelthryth, the Anglo-Saxon saint who founded Ely’s monastery in 673. It began as part of Ely Palace, the bishops’ London residence, and was designed in the Decorated Gothic style then used at Old St Paul’s. The chapel has two storeys, with the upper church larger and more ornate, and its windows show early bar tracery and intersecting patterns. The building has served many roles through the centuries. In the early 17th century it became a Spanish embassy chapel where English Catholics could worship despite the law. After the English Civil War the palace was largely demolished, but the chapel survived. In 1874 it was bought by Father William Lockhart and restored by George Gilbert Scott to its original 13th-century form. John Francis Bentley added a choir screen, organ and gallery, and a relic of Saint Etheldreda’s hand was placed near the high altar. The church reopened for Catholic Mass in 1878, ending over two centuries of Anglican use. Inside, visitors find the upper church with its restored Gothic arches and stained glass by Joseph Nuttgens. The east window shows the Trinity, the four evangelists and Saint Etheldreda, while the south and north walls depict Old and New Testament scenes. Along the walls stand statues of English Catholic martyrs, including Saint John Houghton and Saint Margaret Ward. Below lies the crypt, once a tavern and now used for services and the annual Blessing of the Throats. The quiet surroundings of Ely Place add to the sense of stepping into a different age.