St George's, Bloomsbury

St George’s, Bloomsbury is a parish church in the London Borough of Camden. Nicholas Hawksmoor designed it between 1716 and 1731, and it was consecrated in 1730. The church stands on a narrow north–south plot once called Ploughyard, bought for £1,000 from Lady Russell. Hawksmoor’s stepped tower rises above Bloomsbury Way, topped by a statue of George I in Roman dress. The portico copies the Temple of Bacchus at Baalbek, Lebanon, and the tower appears in Hogarth’s ‘Gin Lane’ and Dickens’s ‘The Bloomsbury Christening’. The church became a Grade I listed building in 1951. The church has witnessed notable events in British history. Anthony Trollope was baptised here in 1824, and F. B. Chatterton married in 1853. Richard Meux Benson, founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, was baptised here. Emily Davison’s funeral took place in 1913 after her death at the Derby. Emperor Haile Selassie attended a controversial requiem in 1937. Conservation work led by the World Monuments Fund reopened the church in 2006 with a new exhibition in the undercroft. Inside, visitors find the Museum of Comedy in the crypt, opened in 2014. It displays photos, posters, props and costumes from British comedy. A 100-seat performance space hosts events. The church runs workshops and lectures for schools and families. The stepped tower and Roman statue remain striking features. The building sits next to the Bloomsbury Thistle Hotel on Bloomsbury Way.