The original church of St Dunstan-in-the-West was built
between AD 988 and 1070, but the first stone of the current Fleet Street
building, which stands just along from the Royal Courts of Justice, wasn't laid
until 27th July 1831.
The St Dunstan-in-the-West church website (visit
link) tells of the history of the church:
"History
St. Dunstan-in-the-West has a long and illustrious
history. Visitors are often struck by how St. Dunstan’s differs in appearance
and style to other Anglican churches. The church looks traditionally Neo-Gothic
on the outside, yet is octagonal inside.
Saint Dunstan
Dunstan was one of the foremost Saints of Anglo-Saxon
England: he was also one of the most venerated before the cult of St. Thomas
Becket took hold of the popular imagination. He was born in 909 A.D. and was
taught by Irish monks at Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset, where he developed a
reputation as a formidable scholar. He also learnt metalworking, and was later
adopted as the patron Saint of Goldsmiths.
Dunstan became a companion to King Aethelstan’s
stepbrothers, Edmund and Eadred, although he was banished after the king died in
939. He then lived at Glastonbury as a hermit, before being appointed Abbot
there in 945. He was appointed as the Bishop of Worcester and then the Bishop of
London, before being elected Archbishop of Canterbury in 960. Dunstan sought
peace with the Danes and promoted monastic living, as well as establishing the
library at Canterbury Cathedral, where he was buried in 988. St. Dunstan’s feast
day is the 19th May, and is still celebrated at this church.
The original St. Dunstan-in-the-West stood on the same
site as today, spilling in the past onto what is now the tarmac of Fleet Street.
It is not known exactly when the original church was built, but it was between
988 and 1070 A.D. It is not impossible that Saint Dunstan himself, or priests
who knew him well, decreed that a church was needed here.
The Church narrowly escaped the Great Fire of London in
1666. The quick thinking of the Dean of Westminster saved the church: he roused
forty scholars from Westminster School in the middle of the night, who
extinguished the flames with buckets of water. The flames came within three
doors of St. Dunstan’s.
The Church is Rebuilt
The wear and tear of time took its toll, however, and
St. Dunstan’s was rebuilt in 1831. The architect, John Shaw, died in 1832,
leaving his son, who bore the same name, to complete the task.
The tower was badly damaged by German bombers in 1944,
and was rebuilt in 1950 through the generosity of newspaper magnate Viscount
Camrose. In 1952, St. Dunstan-in-the-West became a Guild Church, dedicating its
ministry to the daytime working population around Fleet Street.
The Church Today
The Clock and Giants
St Dunstan-in-the-West was a well-known landmark in
previous centuries because of its magnificent clock. This dates from 1671, and
was the first public clock in London to have a minute hand. The figures of the
two giants strike the hours and quarters, and turn their heads. There are
numerous literary references to the clock, including in Tom Brown’s Schooldays,
the Vicar of Wakefield and a poem by William Cowper (1782):
When labour and when dullness, club in
hand,
Like the two figures at St. Dunstan’s stand,
Beating alternately in measured time
The clockwork tintinnabulum of rhyme,
Exact and regular the sounds will be,
But such mere quarter-strokes are not for me.
The courtyard also contains statues of King Lud, the
mythical sovereign, and his sons and Queen Elizabeth I, all of which originally
stood in Ludgate. The statue of Queen Elizabeth I dates from 1586 and is the
only one known to have been carved during her reign.
Inside the Church
Much of the internal fabric pre-dates the rebuilding of
the Church in the 1830s.
The high altar and reredos are Flemish woodwork dating
from the seventeenth century. There are also a large number of monuments from
the original church. Some of the earliest are two bronze figures thought to date
from 1530.
The Organ
The original church has an organ dating from 1674-75
made by Renatus Harris. However, none of the original parts are likely to have
remained as over the years it has had to be entirely rebuilt. Much of the
present organ dates from 1834, when a Joseph Robson organ was bought at the same
time as the Church was being rebuilt. Many distinguished organists have played
here, including John Reading, the composer of Adeste Fideles, who died in 1764.
Handel was even invited to play here, although whether the great composer ever
accepted the invitation remains unknown.
The Romanian Orthodox Church
As well as being an Anglican church, the building of
St. Dunstan’s is home to the Romanian Orthodox Church in London. The beautiful
iconostasis (altar screen) was brought here from a monastery in Bucharest in
1966. For more information about the Romanian Orthodox Church please click here.
St. Dunstan-in-the-West is home to the Anglican and
Eastern Churches Association, and is a centre of prayer for Christian Unity. It
is therefore appropriate that the side chapels contain altars dedicated to
various traditions, including the Lutheran Church in Berlin (EKD). There is also
an altar of the Oriental Churches (Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Syrian, Syro-Indian)
and a shrine of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. St Dunstan’s continues in
its special role of promoting good relations with Churches outside the Anglican
Communion, including through its role as the Diocese of London’s Church for
Europe.
Other Famous Connections
The poet John Donne held the benefice here from
1624-31, while he was Dean of St. Paul’s. William Tyndale, who pioneered the
translation of the Bible into English, was a lecturer here. The famous diarist
Samuel Pepys worshipped here a number of times. Lord Baltimore, who founded the
State of Maryland in the USA, was buried here in 1632, as was his son. The
church has been associated with the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers (old
English for shoemakers) since the fifteenth century. Once a year the company
holds a service here to commemorate the benefactors John Fisher and Richard
Minge, after which children used to be given a penny for each time they ran
around the church!
The Hoare Bank
The church has long had an association with C. Hoare
and Co., whose bank has been situated opposite the church since 1690. The Hoare
family donated the four stained glass windows behind the high altar and the
carved canopies of the altar-piece. The windows show Archbishop Lanfrance; St
Dunstan beside a roaring furnace into which he has thrust his pincers ready to
pull a devil’s nose; St. Anselm and Archbishop Langton with King John at the
signing of the Magna Carta. Members of the Hoare family, as well as being
generous benefactors, have maintained a tradition of service as churchwardens
over the centuries. Two have been Lord Mayors of London and a family vault still
lies in the church crypt.
The staple of Victorian penny shockers, the story of
Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, stalks the no-man’s land between
urban myth and historical fact. According to some sources, Todd, a barber,
tooth-puller and surgeon, did actually exist, and in 1785 set up shop at 186
Fleet Street. It is claimed that he murdered over 100 of his clients, before
selling their flesh on to Margery Lovett, who owned a pie shop in nearby Bell
Yard!"
The church is Grade I listed and its entry, at English
Heritage (visit
link), descries the church thus:
"Parish church and attached Sunday School incorporating
church vestry. Church 1830-33 on site of a church dating from c1170,
incorporating monuments from the earlier church and statues and masonry from the
nearby Ludgate, demolished in 1760 for road widening. Architect John Shaw Senior
completed after his death by his son John. Sunday School of 1839 by Shaw.
Church is an octagonal, Gothic design in yellow brick
with stone dressings. Ketton stone tower to south of three stages with ogee to
entrance arch, buttresses and crockets. Top stage has triple arched windows with
cinquefoil lights. Above this is slender octagonal stone lantern. Immediately to
the right of the south door is a memorial tablet to Izaac Walton erected in
1895.
Attached to the east of the church is a bracketed clock
of 1671 by Thomas Harris brought to the church in 1935. Above this in a wooden
Ionic aedicule are two figures of men wielding clubs to strike bells either side
of a false door. Below this is the Northcliffe Memorial of 1930 with obelisk
designed by Lutyens and bronze bust by Lady Scott.
Plaster vault to interior of church over iron structure
with pointed plaster tunnel vaults with transverse ribs, the four diagonal
recesses also with rib vaults and main vault star-ribbed above a clerestorey of
eight identical windows.
Chancel to north. Entrances to west from Clifford's Inn
Passage and east (vestry). Fittings of the 1830s by Shaw include pews, font and
pulpit with linenfold panelling. Altar surround incorporates early C16 Flemish
woodwork. Stalls have fragments of late C17 pierced carving. Organ by Joseph
Robson 1834, in a case probably designed by John Shaw. North west window to
Izaac Walton by Kempe behind the Iconostasis of c1860 brought from Antim
Monastery Bucharest. Wrought iron sword rest of frame type of 1745.Monuments
include a C16 brass and figurative tombs, busts and wall tablets dating from the
C16 to the mid C19, mainly preserved from the previous church on the site.
Attached to the east is the Sunday School with a plaque
with the inscription "St Dunstan in the West AD 1839". Stone faced with parapet
with two small ball finials with three panels below, the centre one containing
the inscription. Centre has aedicule with decorated pilasters and swansneck
pediment of c1667 from the Ludgate demolished in 1760. In the central niche is a
statue of Queen Elizabeth I in state robes with orb and sceptre, probably made
in 1586 by William Kerwin and removed from the Ludgate. Beneath is a
round-headed arch with strapwork motif above and beneath the arch in the vestry
porch are three decayed stone statues on stone plinths said to represent King
Lud and his sons, also removed from the Ludgate."
The church's website (visit
link) also lists visiting hours
"Visiting the Church
Visitors are always welcome at St. Dunstan-in-the-West
The Church is open every Tuesday 11am-3pm when watchers
from the Friends of the City Churches are here to answer any questions. There is
a Lunchtime Eucharist at 12:30pm.
We aim to open the church every weekday from 11.00am to
2.00pm for visitors, and a booklet detailing the history of St. Dunstan’s is
available at the back of the Church."