St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe is a Church of England church located on

Queen Victoria Street, London Queen Victoria Street, named after the British monarch who reigned from 1837 to 1901, is a street in London which runs east by north from its junction with New Bridge Street and Victoria Embankment in the Castle Baynard ward of the City of Londo ...

in the City of London, near

Blackfriars station Blackfriars, also known as London Blackfriars, is a central London railway station and connected London Underground station in the City of London. It provides Thameslink services: local (from North to South London), and regional (Bedford and ...

History

First mentioned around 1170, St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe was almost certainly founded considerably earlier. During the 13th century the church was a part of Baynard's Castle, an ancient royal residence. In 1361,

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

moved his

Royal Wardrobe The Royal Wardrobe (also known as the King's Wardrobe) was a building located between Carter Lane and St Andrew's Church, just to the north of what is now Queen Victoria Street in the City of London, near Blackfriars. It was used as a storehou ...

(a storehouse for Royal ''accoutrements'', housing arms and clothing among other personal items of the Crown) from the Tower of London to just north of the church. It was from this association that the church acquired its unique name. The Wardrobe and the church, however, were both lost in the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

in 1666. Of the 51 churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire, St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe is among the simplest of his designs; it was erected in 1695. The church was again gutted during the London blitz by German bombing; only the tower and walls survived. It was rebuilt and rededicated in 1961.

Present day

As the parish of St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe rejects the

ordination of women The ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain Christian traditions and most denominations in which "ordina ...

, it receives alternative episcopal oversight from the

Bishop of Fulham The Bishop of Fulham is a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of London in the Church of England. The bishopric is named after Fulham, an area of south-west London; the see was erected under the Suffragans Nomination Act 1888 by Order in Council dated ...

(currently Jonathan Baker).

Advowson

The advowson of St Andrew's was anciently held by the family of FitzWalter to which it probably came from the holding by Robert Fitzwalter (d.1235) of the office of Constable of Baynard's Castle. In 1417 it was held by Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley (d.1417), as his charter dated 24 June 1417 appointing feoffees to his estate records. Berkeley's Inn, the town house of that family stood nearby, at the south end of Adle Street, against

Puddle Wharf A puddle is a small accumulation of liquid, usually water, on a surface. It can form either by pooling in a depression on the surface, or by surface tension upon a flat surface. A puddle is generally shallow enough to walk through, and too sm ...

, as reported by

John Stow John Stow (''also'' Stowe; 1524/25 – 5 April 1605) was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as ''The Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles'', ''The C ...

in his "Survey of London" (1598)

Building

St Andrew's is situated on a terrace overlooking the street, its plain red-brick exterior contrasting with the stone buildings on either side. The interior is aisled, with arcaded bays supported by piers rather than the usual columns. The original interior fittings were mostly destroyed during the war, and many of the church's features were procured from other destroyed

Wren churches Sir Christopher Wren was 33 years old and near the beginning of his career as an architect when the Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed many of the city's public buildings, including 88 of its parish churches. Wren's office was commissioned to ...

. The weathervane on the steeple comes from St Michael Bassishaw (which was demolished in 1900). A replacement pulpit came from the church of

St Matthew, Friday Street St. Matthew Friday Street was a church in the City of London located on Friday Street, off Cheapside. Recorded since the 13th century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, then rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. The re ...

. The font and cover also came from here. The royal arms, of the House of Stuart, came from

St Olave Old Jewry St Olave's Church, Old Jewry, sometimes known as ''Upwell Old Jewry'', was a church in the City of London located between the street called Old Jewry and Ironmonger Lane. Destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, the church was rebuilt by t ...

(demolished, except for its tower, in 1887). There is a figure of St Andrew, dated around 1600, which stands on the north side of the sanctuary and an unusual figure of

Saint Anne According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come o ...

who is shown holding the Virgin Mary who in turn holds the

Christ child The Christ Child, also known as Divine Infant, Baby Jesus, Infant Jesus, the Divine Child, Child Jesus, the Holy Child, Santo Niño, and to some as Señor Noemi refers to Jesus Christ from his nativity to age 12. The four canonical gospels, a ...

. This statue, which is probably north Italian, dates to around 1500. William Shakespeare was a member of this parish for about fifteen years while he was working at the Blackfriars Theatre nearby, and later he bought a house within the parish, in Ireland Yard. In his honour, a

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...

was erected in the church. Regular Sunday services are conducted there by the St Gregorios congregation of the Indian Orthodox Church. The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.

Notable clergy

* Guy Treweek (husband of Rachel Treweek, the first female diocesan bishop in the Church of England), was

priest-in-charge A priest in charge or priest-in-charge (previously also curate-in-charge) in the Church of England is a priest in charge of a parish who is not its incumbent. Such priests are not legally responsible for the churches and glebe, but simply hold a ...

from 2011 to 2015 *

Luke Miller Luke Jonathan Miller (born 27 June 1966) is a Church of England priest. Since January 2016, he has been Archdeacon of London. From 2010 until 2015, he was Archdeacon of Hampstead in the Diocese of London. He is an executive officer of the Societ ...

; rector since 2016, priest-in-charge from 2015 to 2016

Notes

External links

*
Location map
(Multimap.com)
360° panorama inside St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Andrew by the Wardrobe Churches completed in 1695 17th-century Church of England church buildings Church of England church buildings in the City of London Christopher Wren church buildings in London English Baroque church buildings Andrew Rebuilt churches in the United Kingdom Diocese of London Grade I listed churches in the City of London 1695 establishments in England