The church's website [visit link] tells
us:
"Romans
St Andrew’s first
appears in written records in AD 951 as a church on top of the hill above the
river Fleet. However, when the crypt was excavated in AD 2002 Roman pottery was
discovered, which indicates that the site has been in use for a much longer
period.
13th Century
The name of the
site changed during the Early Middle Ages, from St Andrew Holburnestrate to St
Andrew de Holeburn. There is also a medieval spring in the crypt, which emanates
from the river Fleet (though it is not generally open to the
public).
In 1348 a local armourer called
John Thavie “left a considerable Estate towards the support of the fabric
forever”. It is his legacy, preserved during the Reformation, invested carefully
through the centuries, that provides for the upkeep of the church
today.
The wooden church was replaced by a
medieval stone one in the 15th Century, of which only the tower now remains.
From outside the tower looks like it was built by Wren, but inside you can see
the medieval masonry.
Wren
In 1666 the great fire
ravaged London, but the medieval church of St Andrew’s was only saved at the
last minute by a change in the wind direction.
However, as it was already in a bad
state of repair, Christopher Wren rebuilt the church anyway.
He rebuilt from the foundations,
making the crypt that still exists beneath the church today, and clad the tower
in marble. It is his largest parish church.
The church is the resting place of
the body of Thomas Coram, who founded the Foundlings’ Hospital in 1741, now
called Coram. The first hospital was set up in a house in nearby Hatton
Garden.
The organ casing at the west end is
also from the Foundlings’ Hospital Chapel, along with the pulpit and the font.
These were previously at the hospital's large premises in Bloomsbury, where the
composer George Fredrick Handel would have played for his fundraising concerts.
The Coram Family still owns a copy of his most famous work ‘The
Messiah’.
The church was also the founding
place of the Royal Free Hospital. On the church steps in 1827 William Marsden
found a dying woman. He was inspired to set up a hospital in Greville
Street for the poor and destitute, later it moved to Gray’s Inn Road. The
hospital is now based in Hampstead.
Teulon
In the middle of the 19th
Century, the Holborn Valley Improvement Scheme bought the North Churchyard from
St Andrew’s to make way for the Holborn Viaduct, which was to link Holborn with
Newgate.
Queen Victoria opened the viaduct
in 1869. Because of the loss of land from the churchyard many of the bodies were
re-interred in the Crypt, as well as in the City Cemetery in
Ilford.
St Andrew’s engaged the Victorian
Gothic architect Samuel Teulon to build a new vicarage and Court House on the
South side of St Andrews. Into the Court Room, the feature room of the building,
Teulon incorporated a 17th Century fireplace from one of the two previous
Questhouses; it still stands impressively in the room today.
Teulon’s building now operates as
the offices for the Foundation, the associated Charities, as well as the
Vicarage and the Conference Rooms. Teulon also substantially remodelled the
interior of the church, as can be seen in the picture below. His 'improvements'
did not cohere well with the purity of Wren's designs. However, his alterations
were destroyed when the church was bombed in 1941. Subsequent restoration has
been closer to Wren's intentions.
The church was used by Charles
Dickens in Oliver Twist - Bill Sykes looks up at St Andrew’s tower, and by Iris
Murdoch in Under the Net, who copies Dickens - though from where her character
stands it is almost impossible to see St Andrew’s.
John Stanley (1712-1786) was
Organist here from the age of 14, and died nearby in Hatton Garden. He became a
governor of the Foundling Hospital after Handel’s death and continued the
tradition of performing the Messiah for the Hospital.
WWII
On the night of the 16th
April 1941 the church was bombed and gutted. All that remained of the original
building was the exterior walls and tower.
After much delay, it was decided
that it would be restored “stone for stone and brick for brick” to the original
Wren designs.
The present building was opened in
1961 with its new status as a Guild Church, a church without a parish designed
to serve the local working community.
Today and Records
In 2002-2003
the Crypt was cleared and the bodies there were moved to the memorial at the
City of London Cemetery in Ilford.
In January 2005 a new large icon
cross was installed, made for the site by the Monastic Family Fraternity of
Jesus in Vallechiara
The church runs a selection of
recitals and lectures, as well as our weekly services and evening concerts.
Please see our calendar for more details.
Since its conversion to a Guild
Church none of the old church records are kept on site. If you wish to trace the
ancestors you believe have a connection to St Andrew Holborn, then, in the first
instance, please contact the two libraries where the records are kept
:
For records pre 1831 please contact
The Guildhall Library
For records post 1831 please contact London
Metropolitan Archives, Northampton Road, EC1 0HB.
The church is open 9am-5pm Monday
to Friday. You are very welcome to visit us."
The church is Grade I listed and the
entry at the English Heritage website [visit
link:] tells us:
"1686-7 by Wren. C15 tower recased
and heightened by Wren in 1704. Interior of church burnt in World War II and
rebuilt in near facsimile. Aisled nave of 7 bays with short chancel and west
tower flanked by low vestries etc, those to the east with domes. Portland stone.
2 tiers of windows, pairs of doorways and balustrade to copper-covered roof.
East end has 3 light window, in 2 tiers, and 3 crowning urns. 2 statues of
charity children on west face of tower which is crowned by balustrade. Galleried
interior with Corinthian columns on high pedestals supporting arcades and
plaster vault. Furnishings modern except for organ case."
The church website [visit
link] tells us when services are held:
"Our services are scheduled to
enable people to come and worship with us: either at a lunchtime or after the
working day. The Eucharist is the heart of our life at St Andrew's and so we
offer the opportunity to attend Mass on every working weekday. Join us to
encounter Christ as he makes himself known to us through the Scriptures and in
the Sacrament.
Monday: 1.10pm: Mass
Tuesday:
1.10pm: Mass
Wednesday: 6.30pm: Evening Prayer
Wednesday: 7.00pm: Sung
Mass
Thursday: 1.10pm: Mass
Friday: 12.30pm: Mass (In the Lady
Chapel)
All our services are open to
public. You are most welcome to attend."