Nominal: 784 Hz Weight: 1227 lbs Diameter: 39.25" Bell 1 of 12
Founded by Whitechapel Bell Foundry 2011
Dove Bell ID: 4212 Tower ID: 11914 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
St Dunstan Fleet Street
Overview
Grid reference: TQ 312 811
The church replaces a mediaeval and Georgian building which had become completely derelict (designs for its reconstruction having been drawn up by George Dance in 1751 but never implemented), and which was demolished in 1829. The foundation stone of the new church was laid on 31st July 1831 and the exterior was completed on 18th July in the following year.
Visiting and facilities
Building is open for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
The body of the church is octagonal, with eight recesses alternately rectangular and semi-octagonal round the edge. Towards the street projects the tower, capped by an octagonal lantern, and flanked by square lobbies containing staircases. To the north is a small doorway giving on to the passage leading to Clifford's Inn and to the south similar doorway communicates with the vestry and adjoining buildings.
Footprint of Church buildings: 615 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
The church replaces a mediaeval and Georgian building which had become completely derelict (designs for its reconstruction having been drawn up by George Dance in 1751 but never implemented), and which was demolished in 1829.
The new church was designed by John Shaw (1776-1832), who had been appointed Surveyor to Christ's Hospital in 1816, and who was a member of the Architects' Club, Fellow of the Royal and Linnean Societies, of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Institute of British Architects. His additions to Christ's Hospital, including the Great Hall, wore similar in style to this church, but all were demolished in 1902; the bulk of his commissions seem to have been houses, villas and lodges.
An Act of Parliament was obtained in June 1829 for the purpose of taking down the old church and are building a new one. Trustees were appointed from the parish who were empowered to erect a new church with seating for 800 (200 to be free) with other parochial buildings. All the monuments, gravestones and monumental inscriptions were to be set up in the new church, which was built some thirty feet north of its predecessor, on the old burial ground, for the purpose of widening the street.
The foundation stone of the new church was laid on 31st July 1831 and the exterior was completed on 18th July in the following year. Twelve days later, John Shaw died suddenly at Ramsgate and the work was completed by his son of the same name. The church was consecrated on 31st January 1833.
Exterior Description
The tower is both prominant and remarkable; with its ashlar facing of yellow-grey Ketton stone, it was obviously the only part of the exterior which was meant to be seen. It is divided into four unequal stages by stringcourses which bear an approximate relationship to the four floor levels inside, and on the uppermost stage stands an open octagonal lantern. The ground floor forms the porch of the church, and has a large doorway surmounted by an ogee crocketted canopy terminating in a finial, on each side of which are ved achievements of arms in square recesses, one for George IV and one for the City of London. Separating this floor from the next is a frieze of shields (uncarved) within cusped panels. The second stage, which forms the ringing chamboer, has merely a narrow lancet in each face and the third stage, which formerly housed the clock, has only a clock face within a square frame set diamond-wise in three walls and a door to the roof of the church in the fourth. The uppermost stage has a large three-light window in each wall which may be distantly inspired by the parallel placing of a similar is feature in the tower of Boston parish church. At this level the slender diagonal buttresses become elegant attenuated pinnacles with crocketted finials. These, together with large projecting corbols carved as lively heads, help to ease the transition from square to octagon which is achieved by broaches hidden behind big corner pinnacles.
The rest of the exterior is very plain; on each side of the towor are low square lobbies which house stone staircases. That on the right now forms a substantial plinth for one of the church's most decorative treasures, the clock and its attendant figures. There seems to have been a musical clock in this part of London since at least 1478, and the present one was originally erected on the roof of the south aisle of the old church, probably as a thank-offering for the building's escape from the Great Fire. It was provided in 1671 by Mr. Harris of Water Lane at a cost of £35 and the old clock. In 1829 when the old church was demolished it was bought by the Marquis of Hertford and set up at his villa (appropriately named "St. Dunstans") in Regent's Park. In 1935 Lord Rothermere purchased the clock and its figures and presented them to the church, meeting also the cost of their restoration. The clock itself is circular and projects on a bracket over the pavement; it has been somewhat altered since it was made. Behind it is an Ionic temple housing two wooden figures of "savages" in lion skins who, upon the quarters and hours, strike two bells with knotty clubs.
The statue of queen Elizabeth I over the door to the building on the right of the church came, together with figures (preserved in the vestry) of the mythical King Lud and his sons Androgeus and Theomantius, from the west front of Ludgate where they had been placed in 1586; they were given to the church by Sir Francis Gosling in 1760 when Ludgate was demolished.
Building Fabric and Features
Stained Glass
The east window originally had four figures of the Evangelists under canopies by Thomas Willement, inserted in 1832; these went in the War, apart from Alpha and Omega and the symbols of the Evangelists which remain in the tracery lights. The present window shows four Archbishops of Canterbury: Lanfranc, St. Dunstan, St. Anselm and Stephen Langton, executed by Gerald E.R. Smith of A.K. Nicholson Studios , 1950.
Stained Glass
1882
North-west window: The Good Samaritan.
Stained Glass
1880
South-west window: Christ with the Children.
Stained Glass
1889
South-east window: The Manifestation.
Interior
Interior Description
The porch at the foot of the tower is fan-vaulted in stone, the fans not decorated with tracery as in most late medieval examples, but simply outlined by a few moulded ribs. In the centre of the ceiling is a circular bellway, and the fans are supported at the corners of the space by leafy corbels. Above the inner door to the church is a circular marble tablet flanked by large angels carved in relief which gives, in Gothic lettering, the information about the church's foundation stone, the architect's date of death and the date of consecration. Below this, the door opens into a small lobby divided from the body of the church by a glazed screen behind the Churchwarden's pews. To left and right double doors give access to the lobbies which lead to the west gallery where the organ stands. Blocked doorways at the upper level are former entrances to galleries, now removed, in other parts of the building. The door on the right also gives access to a stair descending to the crypt; this is a n large rectangular space vaulted in brick with various burial vaults.
The body of the church is a large and airy octagon which benefits greatly from the clerestory windows, the other windows being rather obscured by buildings close at hand. The central space is surrounded by eight wide arches opening into recesses which are alternately rectangular and semi octagonal. The arches are carried on moulded responds with attached shafts and the recesses are vaulted in alternating ways, the rectangular with the pointed tunnel vaults and the semi-octagonal with rib vaults carried on shafts attached to the walls which rest on big corbels carved as busts of angels.
The floor is paved with stone flags, and the seating is arranged in two symmetrical blocks of pews whose outer edges follow the shape of the octagon and box pews in the north and south transeptal recesses. The eastern recess is the chancel and is lit by a four-light traceried window of Perpendicular character. The west bay which forms the entrance has the only remaining sellery upon which stands the contemporary organ case. Of the other four bays, the south-west forms the baptistery and is paved with late-Victorian black and white tesserae and the north-west forms a chapel for the reservation of the sacrament, similarly paved.
The construction of an octagon with projecting recesses creates tha problem of triangular spaces between one recess and the next, and these are ventilated by quatrefoils pierced in the spandrelsof the eight arches round the octagon, as well as by small trefoiled lancet windows in the side walls of each recess.
Fixtures and fittings
Reredos
The reredos incorporates a number of sixteenth-century Flemish flamboyant panels, six with small front-facing figures, twelve with tracery designs under an ogee canopy and six with linenfold.
Pulpit
1833
The pulpit seems to be part of the 1833 furnishing, and therefore presumably by John Shaw II; of stained deal, but the flight of steps of oak; octagonal with twelve panels of linen fold and twelve of angels.
Lectern
c.1870
The lectern is a brass pedestal book-rest (not an eagle) with much incised Geometric patterning and some projecting hardstones.
Font (object)
The font is of stone, octagonal, on an ogee plinth with an angel carved in relief in cach panel of the bowl; presumably of the date of the church and by John Shaw II.
Font (component)
The ogee cover is also octagonal, with crockets up the edges and a big foliated finial.
Bells
Nominal: 1972 Hz Weight: 348 lbs Diameter: 22.63" Bell 2 of 12
Founded by Whitechapel Bell Foundry 2011
Dove Bell ID: 29380 Tower ID: 11914 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 1761.1 Hz Weight: 379 lbs Diameter: 23.75" Bell 3 of 12
Founded by Whitechapel Bell Foundry 2011
Dove Bell ID: 29381 Tower ID: 11914 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 1571.8 Hz Weight: 412 lbs Diameter: 24.88" Bell 4 of 12
Founded by Whitechapel Bell Foundry 2011
Dove Bell ID: 29382 Tower ID: 11914 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 1473 Hz Weight: 424 lbs Diameter: 25.5" Bell 5 of 12
Founded by Whitechapel Bell Foundry 2011
Dove Bell ID: 29383 Tower ID: 11914 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 1314.6 Hz Weight: 442 lbs Diameter: 26.56" Bell 6 of 12
Founded by Whitechapel Bell Foundry 2011
Dove Bell ID: 29384 Tower ID: 11914 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 1173.6 Hz Weight: 491 lbs Diameter: 28.19" Bell 7 of 12
Founded by Whitechapel Bell Foundry 2011
Dove Bell ID: 29385 Tower ID: 11914 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 1048 Hz Weight: 606 lbs Diameter: 30.5" Bell 8 of 12
Founded by Whitechapel Bell Foundry 2011
Dove Bell ID: 29386 Tower ID: 11914 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 982.4 Hz Weight: 695 lbs Diameter: 31.94" Bell 9 of 12
Founded by Whitechapel Bell Foundry 2011
Dove Bell ID: 29387 Tower ID: 11914 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Nominal: 877.6 Hz Weight: 887 lbs Diameter: 35" Bell 10 of 12
Founded by Whitechapel Bell Foundry 2011
Dove Bell ID: 29388 Tower ID: 11914 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: unturned Cracked: No
Weight: 84 lbs Diameter: 14.5" Bell 11 of 12
Founded by Robert Catlin 1739
Dove Bell ID: 29389 Tower ID: 11914 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Weight: 112 lbs Diameter: 16" Bell 12 of 12
Founded by Robert Catlin 1739
Dove Bell ID: 29390 Tower ID: 11914 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Churchyard
Grid reference: TQ 312 811
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
Quinquennial Inspections
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