St Dionis Backchurch was a parish church in the Langbourn ward of the City of London. Of medieval origin, it was rebuilt after 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 ...

to the designs of

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

and demolished in 1878.

Early history

The church of St Dionis was dedicated to

Dionysus the Areopagite Dionysius the Areopagite (; grc-gre, Διονύσιος ὁ Ἀρεοπαγίτης ''Dionysios ho Areopagitēs'') was an Athenian judge at the Areopagus Court in Athens, who lived in the first century. A convert to Christianity, he is venerat ...

. The name Backchurch could have come from its standing behind other buildings, or from its position relative to the church of

St Gabriel Fenchurch St Gabriel Fenchurch (or Fen Church as recorded on the Ordnance Survey) was a parish church in the Langbourn Ward of the City of London, destroyed in the Great Fire of London and not rebuilt. History The church stood between Rood Lane and Min ...

. It was in existence by the year 1288, when Reginald de Standen was recorded as being the rector. In 1466 the Alderman John Darby had an aisle added, in which he was buried. The

patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

of the church once belonged to the prior and canons of Christchurch, Canterbury and later passed to the dean and chapter of Canterbury Cathedral.

Rebuilding after the Great Fire

The church was destroyed in the

in 1666, and rebuilt to the designs of

in 1674 at a cost of £5,737. A tower, also to Wren's design, was added ten years later. Wren's church was 66 feet long and 59 feet wide. It was divided into nave and aisles by Ionic columns supporting an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

. The ceiling of the nave was arched, and pierced with circular windows under groin vaulted openings, while the aisle ceilings were horizontal. There was a west gallery with an organ. The bell tower was divided into three storeys by

string courses A course is a layer of the same unit running horizontally in a wall. It can also be defined as a continuous row of any masonry unit such as bricks, concrete masonry units (CMU), stone, shingles, tiles, etc. Coursed masonry construction arranges ...

. At the top was an open parapet, and a small

bell turret A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...

which had been removed by the nineteenth century. The church was built mostly of stone, with some brick which was later stuccoed. The east end of the church, in Lime Street, had a pediment and two pairs of coupled Ionic pilasters with a large window below carved festoons. In 1724 the church received a new three manual organ with 29 stops, large for its day, which cost £749. It was designed by Renatus Harris and approved by a number of experts including George Frederick Handel.

Charles Burney Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist a ...

was later to be appointed organist in 1749. A row of shops, built against the south wall, stood between the church and Fenchurch street. A City of London commemorative plaque noting the year of demolition is attached to the wall of the buildings that now occupy the former site of St Dionis Backchurch, opposite numbe
24 Lime Street EC3

Demolition

In 1858, the vestry asked the architect George Edmund Street to examine the fabric of the church. He found that the church was in need of substantial repairs and recommended that the most economical course of action would be to demolish the whole church except for the tower, and rebuild it to a Gothic design of his own. Before any such plans could be carried out, however, the vestry decided that the church was no longer needed. In 1878 the parish was merged with that of

All Hallows Lombard Street All Hallows Lombard Street, also seen with descriptor Gracechurch Street, was a parish church in the City of London. It stood behind thin buildings fronting both streets, in Langbourn Ward, The west and south sides faced into Ball Alley. Of ...

under the

Union of Benefices Act Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

of 1860 and the church demolished. While surveying the church, Street discovered that a fifteenth-century crypt had survived under the chancel of Wren's church. The church had a peal of ten bells, cast between 1726 and 1750. They were transferred to All Hallows Lombard Street when St Dionis was demolished. A parish mark can be seen in Philpot Lane. The church of St. Dionis, Parsons Green was built with the proceeds of the sale of the site of the City church, and its font and pulpit survive there. The burials were reinhumed at the City of London Cemetery. According to the account in William Leslie Sumner's ''The Organ'', the organ at St Dionis - a fine instrument by all accounts and the last to be built by the famous organ builder Renatus Harris in 1724 - was removed first to St Mark's, East Walworth where the case was left after the organ itself was again removed to Darenth Training Colony, Dartford, Kent. The pipework was later incorporated into the Mander organ at

St Vedast alias Foster Saint Vedast Foster Lane or Saint Vedast-alias-Foster, a church in Foster Lane, in the City of London, is dedicated to St. Vedast (Foster is an Anglicisation of the name "Vaast", as the saint is known in continental Europe), a French saint whose ...

, Foster Lane, in the City of London.

Present day

The parish now forms part of the combined parish of ''

St Edmund the King and Martyr ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...

, and St Mary Woolnoth Lombard Street with St Nicholas Acons,

, St Benet Gracechurch, St Leonard Eastcheap, St Dionis Backchurch and St Mary Woolchurch Haw'' – usually shortened to "St Edmund & St Mary Woolnoth". It is part of the Church of England's

Diocese of London The Diocese of London forms part of the Church of England's Province of Canterbury in England. It lies directly north of the Thames. For centuries the diocese covered a vast tract and bordered the dioceses of Norwich and Lincoln to the north ...

.Diocese of London
St Edmund & St Mary Woolnoth

References

External links