St James Garlickhythe facts for kids
Quick facts for kids St James Garlickhythe |
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St James Garlickhythe from the southwest
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| Location | City of London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Previous denomination | Roman Catholicism |
| Churchmanship | Traditional Anglican/Book of Common Prayer/Anglo-Catholicism |
| Architecture | |
| Heritage designation | Grade I listed building |
| Architect(s) | Sir Christopher Wren |
| Style | Baroque |
| Specifications | |
| Bells | 8 Royal Jubilee + 2 quarter and 1 hour |
| Administration | |
| Diocese | Diocese of London |
St James Garlickhythe is a historic Church of England church located in the City of London. It's often called "Wren's lantern" because it has so many windows, letting in lots of light!
This church has been around since the 1100s. Sadly, it was destroyed in the terrible Great Fire of London in 1666. After the fire, it was rebuilt by the famous architect Sir Christopher Wren and his team. Today, it's also the official church for several important City groups called livery companies.
Contents
History of the Church
The church is named after the disciple St James, also known as 'the Great'. St James Garlickhythe is a special stop for pilgrims traveling on a route that ends at the Santiago da Compostela cathedral. If you visit, you can even get your pilgrim passport, called a credencial, stamped with a scallop shell!
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The unusual name 'Garlickhythe' comes from a nearby landing spot, or "hythe," where garlic used to be sold a long, long time ago.
The first mention of the church was in a will from the 1100s. Over time, it was known by other names like St James in the Vintry or St James-by-the-Thames.
Ships from France that brought garlic also carried wine. Because of this, St James Garlickhythe has always been connected to wine merchants. The church is in an area of the city called Vintry. In 1326, a London official and wine merchant named Richard de Rothing paid to have the church rebuilt. Another group with strong ties to the church is the Joiners' Company, which started as a religious group in St James in 1375.
In the 1400s, the church became a "collegiate" church, meaning it had seven priests who held special services. St James was very important in the Middle Ages, so much so that six Lord Mayors were buried there.
When Henry VIII closed many monasteries, St James became a regular parish church. It actually benefited from this change, receiving items from other churches that were being taken apart. For example, in 1560, parts of the rood screen from St Martin Vintry were used to make pews for St James.
Henry VIII also ordered all churches to keep weekly records of births, deaths, and marriages. The oldest records that still exist are from St James, with the first entry being a baptism on November 18, 1535.
The church was repaired and made bigger several times in the early 1600s. The north side was rebuilt in 1624, and a gallery was added in 1644.
During the time of the Commonwealth of England, the church members gave money to their rector after he was removed in 1647 for using the Book of Common Prayer, which was not allowed then.
Rebuilding After the Great Fire
Everything was lost when the Great Fire of London swept through in 1666. Rebuilding started ten years later. Old records in the church say:
- "The foundation thereof were laid AD 1676 – John Hinde and John Hoyle, Church Wardens. It was rebuilt and re-opened 1682 and completely finished AD 1683…"
The main part of the church was finished, but the tower still needed its spire. Records from 1682 show payments for things like wine for the opening and money given to Wren's clerks to encourage them to finish the steeple quickly.
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It took a while, but building on the tower finally began 33 years later and was finished in 1717 by Nicholas Hawksmoor. The total cost for the church and tower was £7230.
In 1711, a writer named Richard Steele visited St James for a Sunday service. He wrote about the rector's powerful sermon in his famous newspaper, The Spectator. A month after this sermon, the future famous composer William Boyce was baptized at St James Garlickhythe.
By the late 1800s, many people were moving out of the City of London to the suburbs. This meant many city churches had very few people attending services. In 1860, Charles Dickens visited St James Garlickhythe and wrote about it in his book The Uncommercial Traveller. He described a small group of twenty people and a dusty, damp building, which he used to imagine the spirits of past churchgoers.
A law was passed in 1860 that allowed some City churches to be torn down and their land sold to build new churches in the suburbs. While several churches nearby were destroyed, St James was saved, perhaps because of its strong connections to the old guilds.
Modern Times and Repairs
During World War I, a bomb dropped by a Zeppelin airship missed the church. To show thanks, the church started an annual "Bomb Sermon."
In May 1941, during the London Blitz in World War II, a large German bomb crashed through the roof of St James. Luckily, it didn't explode! It was safely removed and detonated elsewhere. However, the buildings around St James were destroyed by fire bombs, causing a lot of damage to the church's outside, including its clock.
While repairs were being done in 1953, workers found that the wooden parts of the church were infested with death watch beetles. This meant the church had to close until 1963 for a big restoration. The result was so good that Sir John Betjeman called it the best restoration of a City church.
In 1991, during construction nearby, a crane collapsed, and its arm crashed into the south wall of the church. This caused the church to close again while the south side was rebuilt and some of the inside items were replaced.
St James Today
The full name of the church today is The Parish Church of St James Garlickhythe with St Michael Queenhythe and Holy Trinity the Less.
The church's area now covers seven old parishes that existed before the Great Fire. It's also responsible for services at the nearby St Michael Paternoster Royal church.
Sunday and daily services at St James use the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. It is the church for more than a dozen livery companies, which are ancient trade guilds in London. It's also the church for the Intelligence Corps, a part of the British Army.
The church follows certain rules about who can lead services. It does not allow female priests or bishops to officiate. Instead, it receives special guidance from the Bishop of Fulham (currently Jonathan Baker).
The Church Building
St James Garlickhythe is shaped like a rectangle. The tower is on the west side, and a special part called the chancel sticks out from the east side. It's built from brick and stone, with some parts covered in stucco or Portland stone. You enter through a fancy doorway in the tower.
The south side of the church, which faces Upper Thames Street, used to be hidden by other buildings. Now, it's the main front of the church. It has five sections with round-headed windows. The north side looks similar, but its windows are real.
The tower is 125 feet tall. It used to be covered in plaster, but that was removed. After World War II, it was covered in Portland stone. The clock on the west side, which shows an image of St James, is a copy from 1988 of the original 1682 clock.
The top of the tower has a stone spire designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor. It looks similar to spires on other famous churches like St Stephen Walbrook and St. Paul’s Cathedral. The spire has three levels, getting smaller as they go up, and is topped with a flag.
The beautiful gates on the west side, decorated with vine leaves and grapes, were a gift from the Vintners' Company, the wine merchants' guild.
The church was officially recognized as a Grade I listed building on January 4, 1950. This means it's a very important historic building.
Inside the Church
The inside of St James Garlickhythe is 40 feet high, making it the tallest of all the churches designed by Wren. Because it was originally surrounded by other buildings, Wren designed very tall main windows and also windows higher up, called clerestory windows, to let in light.
When it was first built, the main entrance was in the middle of the north wall, but this has since been filled in. The church has a central area called a nave and two narrow aisles on the sides. There are two rows of five Ionic columns that run from west to east, supporting the ceiling.
The church was renovated a lot in the 1800s, but many of those changes, like the stained glass windows, were removed after World War II to bring it back closer to Wren's original design.
The chancel, at the east end, is slightly narrower than the nave and has a rounded ceiling called a barrel vault, unlike the flat ceiling in the rest of the church.
At the west end, there's a gallery built in 1714. It holds the original organ case from 1719, which is decorated with cherubs playing trumpets and palm trees.
The beautiful crystal chandelier was a gift from the Glass Sellers' Company. It's a copy of one that was destroyed when the crane crashed in 1991.
Many original features are still there, like the reredos (the decorated screen behind the altar) with its Corinthian columns, the communion table with doves carved on its legs, and the churchwardens' pews with their iron hat stands. The font, used for baptisms, was made by the church's stonemason, Christopher Kempster.
In 1876, St James's parish joined with that of St Michael Queenhithe, another nearby Wren church. St James received many items from St Michael's, including the pulpit, a royal coat of arms from the House of Stuart (an old royal family), and a sword rest. St James also has its own royal arms from the House of Hanover, making it the only City church with two royal arms displays!
The Mummy of "Jimmy Garlick"
There used to be a very well-preserved mummy of a man known as "Jimmy Garlick" on display! His embalmed body was found in the church's underground vaults in 1855. For a while, it was thought he was a teenager who died around the 1700s. The body was displayed in a glass cabinet, but it's no longer open to the public.
In 2004, Jimmy Garlick was featured in a TV show called Mummy Autopsy. Using modern science like carbon dating and X-rays, they found out he died between 1641 and 1801. They also discovered he had osteoarthritis, a condition that usually affects older people. The team also saw that the mummy appeared to be balding and had tooth decay, which also suggests he was older when he died. The body is now buried in a special stone coffin in the only remaining part of the church's crypt.
Royal Jubilee Bells
A new set of eight bells, called "The Royal Jubilee Bells," were made in 2012. They were first placed on a barge and rung on the River Thames during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, which was part of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. After that, they were permanently installed in the church tower.
Burials
- George Stanley, 9th Baron Strange
- Richard Platt, a brewer and alderman, died in 1600.
See also
