history of st james's
Click on Wren's sketch (below) to enter main history pages Excerpt from ‘The Illustrated London News’ August 9, 1947 For nearly seven years St James’s Piccadilly, has stood roofless and ruined, a poignant reminder of the air attacks of the “Big Blitz” winter of 1940-41. A portion of the south aisle was temporarily repaired so that services could be held; and last year, as the result of a suggestion made by the late Lord Southwood, the churchyard was made into a garden of remembrance to commemorate London’s fortitude during the war. Repair work will shortly start on the north wall, which has become unsafe. St. James’s Grinling Gibbons carvings include the font at which Lord Chesterfield and Lord Chatham were christened; and among the well-known men buried there are the two Willem Van de Veldes (marine painters), Gillray the caricaturist and “Old Q.,” the fourth Duke of Queensberry” |
“I can hardly think it practicable to make a single room so capacious, with pews and galleries, as to hold 2,000 persons, and all to hear the service and see the preacher. I endeavoured to effect this in building the parish church of St James’s, Westminster [Piccadilly], which I presume is the most capacious, with those qualifications, that hath yet been built” Sir Christopher Wren |
