St. Ethelburga, Virgin & Child, & Lancelot Andrewes -- All Hallows By the Tower, Tower Hamlets, London, UK
N 51° 30.570 W 000° 04.770
30U E 702658 N 5710529
Three figures of religious significance installed in separate niches over the North Porch of All Hallows By the Tower Church.
Waymark Code: WMT2CK
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/13/2016
Views: 2
Three stone statues greet worshippers and visitors heading into All Hallows By the Tower church. From left to right, they are St. Ethelburga, Virgin & Child, and Lancelot Andrewes.
St Ethelburga of Barking was a Benedictine relgious figure and is a Catholic (and Anglican) saint whose feast day is 11 October. She is featured on the front of All Hallows By the Tower because the first church founded at this site in AD675 was the Benedictine Abbey of Barking.
Accrdong to Catholic Saints online: (
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"ST ELTHELBURGA OF BARKING
Benedictine abbess, daughter of the king of the East Angles and sister of Sts. Eronwald, Etheldreda, Sexburga, and Withburga. St. Erconwald founded a convent for her at Barking, in Essex, England. She was trained as an abbess by St. Hildelid, who came from France to assist her."
The statue of the Virgin Mary and Child Jesus is installed in the center niche above the North Porch door of All Hallows By the Tower Church near the Tower of London, which makes sense if you recollect that this church was formerly dedicated to St Mary the Virgin before the Reformation.
A statue of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes occupies the right-hand niche. He was an English bishop and scholar during the reigns of Elizabeth I and her successor James I. Andrewes oversaw the translation of the King James version of the Bible.
More on Andrewes can be found here, on the amazing Grateful to the Dead blog: (
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"One of the most amazing feats of history was the creation of the King James Version of the Bible in the years leading up to 1611. A committee of bickering scholars pulled together one of the two greatest works of English literature–great, at least, in their formative influence on the language and culture of English-speaking nations–with the other being the plays of Shakespeare.
The “lead mule” on this herculean project was perhaps the most brilliant man of his age, and one of the most pious, Lancelot Andrewes. . . ."
We have not been able to find any information about the sculptor of these figures online.