The History of St Stephen Walbrook - Brandenburg Christmas Concert

St Stephen Walbrook looking east (taken during the construction of the new Bloomberg HQ)

I was asked to give a brief talk about the history of St Stephen Walbrook after the interval at the Brandenburg Christmas Concert on Saturday 7th December 2019. I kept (more or less!) to this script. 

Good afternoon, my name is Phillip Dawson and it is a great pleasure to be able to speak to you about this glorious place. I’m told I’ve got about a quarter of an hour or as long as it takes for the choir to sober up after that lovely mulled wine!

Like you, I was drawn here primarily by the wonderful music. St Stephen Walbrook was - and remains - the only place in the City of London where you can come to a choral mass (or communion) and get back to your desk within your lunch hour. In those days I was busy in my spare time helping at a church in the suburbs of London and when you are busy - even in a church - it can be hard to make time and space pray - to listen to God. I found that time and space here in my lunch hour - amongst the beautiful sounds of our choir. Next year I begin training to be ordained as a priest. St Stephen Walbrook disrupted my life - and mine is not the only one.

St Stephen Wabrook Interior

The fascinating history of this place is marked with events which transformed the lives of countless people here in the City of London and in the world beyond. Some of these events, like this fantastic altar by Henry Moore, have left their mark in stone; others, have left their mark as living stones - such as the lives of those transformed by the work of the Samaritans, the world’s first telephone helpline, founded here sixty six years ago.

Stones are of course the symbol of the martyrdom of our patron saint, Stephen, the first Christian martyr, who suffered death by stoning - but it is to another stone altogether to which we turn to begin our story of St Stephen Walbrook - the famous London Stone, to the south of our tiny parish, which can be seen in the side of a building opposite Cannon Street station. Some have suggested that this mysterious stone marked the centre of Roman London - the point from which all measurements were taken. The prevailing view among archaeologists is that it marks the entrance to the praetorium.

The London Stone, Cannon Street

The river Walbrook - now culverted (although you can catch the odd whiff on a hot day) - as well as the favourable Thames crossing at what is now London Bridge - encouraged the Romans to settle here and place their stone. By the second century we find the first place of worship along the banks of the Walbrook - the Temple of Mithras - the site recently reopened in the basement of the £1bn Bloomberg Building opposite. Now you can spend half an hour listening to an audio reconstruction of the virile Roman soldiers showering themselves in freshly slaughtered bulls blood - and come across to the church afterwards for Choral Evensong.

Map of Roman London showing the River Walbrook (now culverted) and the location of the London Stone.

After the Romans left, their stone buildings were robbed away and we are yet to discover physical the remains of the first Christian church in this area - although later records suggest it almost certainly grew up on or near the site of the Temple of Mithras. By 1428 that church and its graveyard were too small for the parish, and a new building, in flint with stone dressings, was erected on land gifted by Robert Chicheley, a member of The Worshipful Company of Grocers, who remain our patrons to this day.

By this time the city was densely populated. One of the larger houses nearby was that of Thomas More, who lived opposite in a house on what is now the site of the Bloomberg building. One can imagine Erasmus punting up the Walbrook and disembarking on a jetty just outside to visit Thomas More while he was busy writing Utopia. More's first wife was buried at St Stephen Walbrook. John Dunstaple or Dunstable - said to be the father of English Music, active in the early fifteenth century was also buried here.

Part of the replacement (Victorian) memorial to John Dunstaple (or Dunstable)

Sitting in this brilliant white church in today’s sanitised City, cleared of all detritus, it is easy to forget that until very recently, many people lived in the streets around here. At the time of Thomas More, most homes were built of timber, lath and plaster and were overcrowded and insanitary - their residents prone to infection. Even our street names have been sanitised - the road to the west of the church now politely named Sherbourne Lane, was originally called S.H.I.T.burn Lane after the river which flowed along it! You get the picture (and the whiff)! Bearbidder Lane to the east of the church was said to have been the site of the first recorded case of the Great Plague in 1665. The only doctor who remained in the City with his patients was Nathaniel Hodges, to whom there is a plaque here in the present Church.

Memorial to Dr Nathaniel Hodges - the only doctor to remain in the City during the plague.

The building we see today owes its existence to the events which began on Sunday, 2nd September, 1666 - the Great Fire of London - a heat so intense that stone burned to dust - destroying 84 churches in the City of London and claiming many lives in the process. The job of rebuilding the City's churches and St Paul’s Cathedral was placed in the hands of Christopher Wren, but no man is an island - Wren had considerable help from draughtsmen and stonemasons; hence the huge variety in the designs for the City Churches we see today.

St Stephen Walbrook was the only church on which work began in 1672 and it may be this fact, combined with the proximity of the church to Wren's own house at 15 Walbrook, that makes this building so unusual. Wren had been inspired by the domes of Paris - especially the chapel of the Sorbonne. At Walbrook he created the first classical (or neo-classical) dome in the UK. The tower was added later (perhaps by Hawksmoor).

Like many of us, the church looks a bit rough on the outside, but it’s what’s inside that counts! The lack of exterior ornamentation and the high level windows are a result of the buildings which used to abut the church - including the stocks (or meat) market on the site of what is now Mansion House.

An eighteenth century print showing the original box pews

Wren’s church designs were transformative - giant sound boxes with large pulpits and huge canopies to amplify the word of God. Very much a Protestant design, the Eucharist was celebrated at a small table at the east end. St Stephen Walbrook was completed in 1679 at a cost of £7,672 - the large amount of money compared to other churches a result of the complex site and ground conditions which hampered construction. A huge dinner was put on for Wren and his wife to mark the completion of the building.

Walbrook has been wowing visitors for centuries. The great traveller and benefactor Lord Burlington (the “Apollo of the Arts”) met the sculptor and architect Canova in Rome. They discussed the great buildings of London; Burlington was familiar with St Paul’s but had never visited Walbrook - Canova told him to go home immediately and come to St Stephen Walbrook because they had nothing to rival it in Rome!

Sketch showing bomb damage (1941) by the war artist Dennis Flanders

The site conditions which made life so difficult for Wren continued to affect the church - subsidence due to the proximity of the Walbrook taking its toll. But it was Mr Hitler who did the most damage with bombs that landed here in 1941 killing 160 people and destroying most of the interior and a good portion of the dome.

In 1953 Chad Varah arrived; our most famous rector of modern times (and co-creator of the comic book hero Dan Dare - who was originally intended to be a space fairing curate). The area around the church was still a bomb site. Only a few parishioners were left including the Lord and Lady Mayor and a publican or two. It was this unique setting - a church without a congregation - and Chad's encounter with the family of a young girl who committed suicide - which led to him founding the Samaritans, which operated from the church office and crypt from 1953, after initial repairs to the church had been undertaken. However as his daughter Felicity reminds us, Chad Varah always said that he didn't found the Samaritans, the Samaritans found him. The first handset of the worlds first telephone helpline is displayed in a case at the back of the church.

Chad Varah, founder of The Samaritans, outside St Stephen Walbrook

This focus on supporting mental wellbeing continues to inform the ministry of the church to this day; St Stephen Walbrook provides time and space for those working and living in the often busy and sometimes stressful City of London.

It was in the swinging sixties, with the arrival of Peter - later Lord - Palumbo as one of our churchwardens, that the work to strengthen and repair the church began in earnest. Speaking to us here a few months ago as part of the City of London's Fantastic Feats celebration, Peter explained that it seemed obvious to place a new altar in the centre of the church, beneath the dome, to mark the completion of the restoration. He used his connections to approach Henry Moore to design the altar. Moore made many visits to the church to see how the light fell within the space and onto the stone. When it was finally completed, a wall of the church was taken down and rebuilt one weekend to get the altar inside the building. But no official permission had been granted by the church authorities. A complicated legal battle ensued, with the Chancellor of the Diocese originally refusing permission for the altar to be used, describing it as incongruous both aesthetically and doctrinally (he ruled that the Eucharist has to be celebrated at a table and that as Henry Moore’s design was a solid piece of marble it could not be so described). The church appealed to the Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved - an unusual court comprising two Law Lords and three Diocesan Bishops which had only ever met once before. They overturned the Chancellors decision, claiming that an altar table required only a horizontal surface and not legs. Henry Moore’s altar was therefore approved for use by the Church of England and the church could re-open.

Henry Moore inspecting the altar at St Stephen Walbrook

The altar remains a controversial design. Some of the comments in our visitors book today describe it as a meteorite or cheese. One author has recently hailed the altar as the ultimate post modern act - but I disagree. This isn't a meteorite that has hit the ground with no reference to its context or setting, this space in this holy ground is where we celebrate the Eucharist - the sacrament through which we glimpse the most important event In human history - the death and resurrection of Jesus, whose coming to earth we celebrate at this time. In Henry Moore’s altar we see the hard stone being carved in response to the light flooding down from the dome to create an intriguing organic form - a heart of stone being slowly transformed into a heart of flesh here at the heart of the City.

At Walbrook we embrace the incongruous - something I would encourage you all to do! Even our nativity scene is incongruous - the smelly, chaotic manger set win the brilliant white setting of the order and symmetry of classical architecture!

The crib scene at St Stephen Walbrook

I hope you enjoy the rest of the concert - sing good King Wenceslas with gusto - I think the only carol to mention our patron saint! Our regular service times are in our newsletter and on,one our parish carol service is on 18 December at 6pm and we will celebrate midnight mass here but wherever you celebrate I hope you have a very Happy Christmas.