Christ Church, Spitalfields

Christ Church, Spitalfields stands on Commercial Street in the East End of London, within the Borough of Tower Hamlets. Built between 1714 and 1729, it is one of the first of the so-called Commissioners' Churches. The church was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor for the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches, established in 1711. Its parish was carved from the medieval Stepney parish to serve an area dominated by Huguenots. Though some used it for baptisms and burials, many preferred their own chapels for worship. The church’s architecture reflects Hawksmoor’s bold style. The plain rectangular nave is topped by a tower of three stages with a Gothic spire. A plain porch with Tuscan columns is attached to the western end, possibly as a later addition. The nave has a richly decorated flat ceiling and is lit by a clerestory. The aisles are roofed with elliptical barrel-vaults carried on Composite columns, and the east window is a double window obscured by Victorian stained glass. Hawksmoor’s tower is seen as both a wall and a tower, dominating the skyline in one direction. The organ, built by Richard Bridge in 1735, was once the largest in England. It has over two thousand pipes and much of the original instrument survives. The churchyard, once a burial ground, was converted into a public garden in 1892. After decades of neglect, the church was restored between 1984 and 2004. Archaeologists cleared the burial vaults, uncovering nearly 1,000 interments. The restoration reinstated the original arrangement of galleries and recaptured the proportions and light of Hawksmoor’s design.