Plaque

Christ Church Spitalfields - western entrance

Erection date: 1877

Inscription

Christchurch Spitalfields
The western entrance to this church was altered and improved and the ornamental ironwork enclosure fixed in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy seven.

Samuel Bardsley MA – Rector & Rural Dean
Cornelius Barham, Richard Joseph Dodson – Churchwardens
Samuel William Iron  - Architect
Thomas Peters – Contractor

The western entrance is this porch but we can find no details of how it was improved in 1877, nor can we find anything about the architect, W. S. Iron.

Site: Christ Church Spitalfields - porch (3 memorials)

E1, Commercial Street, Christ Church Spitalfields - porch

Church, erected 1714 - 29, by Hawksmoor. Church website. The church has a history of selecting nominatively-determined architects: Ewan Christian and Samuel William Iron (see Isambard Brunel for more.)

These 3 plaques are inside the porch: 'fire' and 'alterations' on the back wall, with 'western entrance' on the left side wall.

This 1890 map is useful.

The rest of the text here comes from a modern information board in the garden to the south of the church:

Christ Church Gardens - Purchased by the church commissioners from the Heath distillery family for £600 in 1711, they stretched from Brick Lane in the east to the back of the houses in Red Lyon Street in the west. By 1732 the engine house occupied the south west corner with Christ Church School standing in the north west corner of the gardens.

An 1838 parliamentary report described Spitalfields as one of the poorest, most overcrowded and most crime-ridden districts in London: harbouring “an extremely immoral population”. During 1843-45 Red Lyon Street and its slums were cleared to make way for the new Commercial Street which now runs alongside the church gardens. In June 1859 the churchyard was closed to burials and dedicated as a ‘lawn or ornamental ground’ with a new school building at the east end on Brick Lane opening in 1873.

In 1888 trams began running along Commercial Street, and in 1891 the local authority undertook the garden maintenance, however by 1903 the gardens were widely known as Itchy park; a notorious rendezvous for homeless men seeking casual work in the fruit market.

During the 1900’s the gardens housed a small park, an adventure playgound and a youth club. Entered through the gardens, the church crypt was used as an air raid shelter during the war. Today the gardens still provide space for rest and renewal in the lee of what many believe to the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor’s finest church building.

There are 4 other plaques on the outside of this church: 2 at the entrance to the crypt, on the south side of the porch, and 2 more on the north side.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Christ Church Spitalfields - western entrance

Subjects commemorated i

Samuel William Iron

Architect active in 1877. We can find no information about him, which is unus...

Read More

Thomas Peters

Building contractor active in 1877.

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Christ Church Spitalfields - western entrance

Created by i

Reverend Samuel Bardsley

Instituted as Rector of Christ Church Spitalfields in 1857 and still in place...

Read More

Cornelius Barham

Churchwarden of Christ Church Spitalfields, 1873 - 77 at least. Possibly the ...

Read More

Richard Joseph Dodson

Churchwarden of Christ Church Spitalfields in 1877. Potato salesman operating...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Christ Church Spitalfields - western entrance

Also at this site i

Christ Church Spitalfields - alterations

Christ Church Spitalfields - alterations

"Entensive" seems to be a portmanteau (mash-up) of "extensive" and "intensive".

Read More

Christ Church Spitalfields - fire

Christ Church Spitalfields - fire

Did they point out that the fire happened on Ash Wednesday because they saw t...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

BAC - Studio 1

BAC - Studio 1

SW11, Lavender Hill, Battersea Arts Centre

This building was the Battersea Town Hall 1893 - 1965, and became the Battersea Arts Centre in 1974. Suffered a bad fire in 2015. The Pl...

1 creator
Marc Bolan shrine - plaque - June

Marc Bolan shrine - plaque - June

SW13, Queen's Ride

To people who don't have any prior knowledge that last sentence is a bit of a non sequitur.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
PP - 2A - Smith

PP - 2A - Smith

EC1, Edward Street

This is a lovely plaque but the fireman's helmet on a plaque for a police constable is odd. It doesn't even seem as if a fire was involved.

Civilian war dead | WW1
2 subjects commemorated, 2 creators
Old Limehouse

Old Limehouse

E14, Three Colt Street, Lime Kiln Wharf

The lettering in the frieze at the top of the metal gates read "Lime Kiln Wharf". The building to the right of our photo has an entrance ...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Tropical sickness

Tropical sickness

WC1, Endsleigh Gardens, 41

This building housed the London School of Tropical Medicine and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, 1920-1939. Seamen's Hospital Society ...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator

Previously viewed

Royal College of Physicians

Royal College of Physicians

Founded by Thomas Linacre in 1518 with a charter granted by Henry VIII. Their first home was Linacre's own house in Knightrider Street. Their second home, at Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, was des...

Group, Education, Medicine

5 memorials
National Physical Laboratory

National Physical Laboratory

The NPL's history page concentrates on their work (e.g. they weighed Concorde, no mean feat) rather than their buildings.  NPL began its life housed in the former royal residence, Bushy House, in B...

Group, Science

3 memorials
Hitchcock mosaics 11 - The Skin Game, 1932

Hitchcock mosaics 11 - The Skin Game, 1932

E11, Church Lane, Leytonstone tube station

6 artists/craftspeople and 5 organisations are named as creating this Gallery of 17 murals. Rather than repeat this information on all 17...

1 subject commemorated
Lewisham Hospital war memorial

Lewisham Hospital war memorial

SE13, Lewisham High Street, Former Lewisham Library

Some of the names on the memorial are illegible. We have found a list on the War Memorials Register and another on the Lewisham War Memor...

War dead | WW1
116 subjects commemorated