St Leonard, Shoreditch High Street, Shoreditch - East end - geograph

St Leonard's, Shoreditch, is the ancient

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

Shoreditch Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...

, often known simply as Shoreditch Church. It is located at the intersection of

Shoreditch High Street Shoreditch High Street is the old main street of Shoreditch, London. It is part of the A10 road and connects Norton Folgate to the south with Kingsland Road to the north. It constitutes a segment of the Roman Ermine Street, which ran directl ...

with

Hackney Road Hackney Road is a London arterial route running from Shoreditch Church in London Borough of Hackney to Cambridge Heath in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The route runs along the northern edge of Bethnal Green and southern edge of Hoxton ...

, within the

London Borough of Hackney London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

. The current building dates from about 1740 and is

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The church is mentioned in the line ""When I grow rich", say the bells of Shoreditch" from the

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

Oranges and Lemons "Oranges and Lemons" is a traditional English nursery rhyme, folksong, and singing game which refers to the bells of several churches, all within or close to the City of London. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as No 13190. The earlies ...

''.The Centre of Attention at Shoreditch Church''
accessed 06/01/08 The

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

beneath the church is the final resting place of many actors from the

Tudor period The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in History of England, England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in Englan ...

Origins

The original church is possibly

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

in origin, and is thought to be built on the site of an Anglo-Saxon predecessor. The first historical reference to it occurs in the 12th century. The church was situated near

The Theatre The Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse in Shoreditch (in Curtain Road, part of the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It was the first permanent theatre ever built in England. It was built in 1576 after the ...

, England's first purpose-built playhouse, built in Shoreditch in 1576, and the

Curtain Theatre The Curtain Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Hewett Street, Shoreditch (within the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It opened in 1577, and continued staging plays until 1624. The Curtain was ...

(built in 1577).''The Bells of Shoreditch''
accessed 06/01/08 Several members of the theatrical profession from the

Elizabethan period The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personific ...

are buried in the church, including: *

James Burbage James Burbage (1530–35 – 2 February 1597) was an English actor, theatre impresario, joiner, and theatre builder in the English Renaissance theatre. He built The Theatre, the first permanent dedicated theatre built in England since Roman time ...

, the founder of The Theatre, England's first playhouse. *His son

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...

, who was the leading man in many of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's plays, which were first performed in the contemporary Shoreditch theatres. *The comedian

Richard Tarlton Richard Tarlton (died September 1588), was an English actor of the Elizabethan era. He was the most famous clown of his era, known for his extempore comic doggerel verse, which came to be known as "Tarltons". He helped to turn Elizabethan theatre ...

, who was a stalwart of the pre-Shakespearian stage. *The actor

Gabriel Spenser Gabriel Spenser, also spelt Spencer, (c. 1578 – 22 September 1598) was an Elizabethan actor. He is best known for episodes of violence culminating in his death in a duel at the hands of the playwright Ben Jonson. Acting career Spenser appears ...

, who was killed by

Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...

in a duel. These, with others of their profession from the period, are commemorated by a large classical memorial erected by the London Shakespeare League in 1913, inside the church, which serves as a reminder of Shoreditch's Shakespearian heritage. The Shoreditch Vestry levied a special poor rate in 1774 for the purpose of setting up a

workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...

for the parish of St Leonard's, which highlights the level of poverty in the area.

Current building

Following a partial collapse of the tower in 1716, the medieval church was rebuilt in

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

style by

George Dance the Elder George Dance the Elder (1695 – 8 February 1768) was a British architect. He was the City of London surveyor and architect from 1735 until his death. Life Originally a mason, George Dance was appointed Clerk of the city works to the City of ...

during 1736–40, with a soaring

steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religi ...

192 feet tall—an imitation 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 ...

's magnificent steeple on

St Mary-le-Bow The Church of St Mary-le-Bow is a Church of England parish church in the City of London. Located on Cheapside, one of the city's oldest and most important thoroughfares, the church was founded in 1080 by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury. Rebui ...

Cheapside Cheapside is a street in the City of London, the historic and modern financial centre of London, which forms part of the A40 London to Fishguard road. It links St. Martin's Le Grand with Poultry. Near its eastern end at Bank junction, where ...

—and a giant four-columned,

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

ed Tuscan

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

. Inside the church, the entablature is supported by giant

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

columns. Dance was also architect of the Mansion House. Many original 18th-century fixtures and fittings remain, including the

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

, the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

, the communion table, clock, organ case, bread cupboards and commandment boards. It was lit with gaslight in 1817, the first in London. The parish

stocks Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing ...

and

whipping post The pillory is a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse. The pillory is related to the stock ...

stand in the porch of the church, and the Shoreditch parish pump is in the churchyard.

Bells

Whilst the church has had bells for many centuries, as evidenced by its inclusion in the ''

'' nursery rhyme, the current ring of 12 bells (plus a "sharp second" to allow a lighter ring of eight bells using 1, sharp second and 3–8 to ring a true octave), hung for

change ringing Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a tightly controlled manner to produce precise variations in their successive striking sequences, known as "changes". This can be by method ringing in which the ringers commit to memor ...

, dates from 1994 when the bells were cast by

John Taylor & Co John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell foundry. It is located in Loughborough, ...

, bellfounders of

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second larg ...

. The bells in the

coat of arms of the London Borough of Hackney The coat of arms of the London Borough of Hackney is the official heraldic arms of the London Borough of Hackney. The coat of arms were granted on 25 July 1969. The present arms is mainly based on the arms of the former Metropolitan Borough of Hac ...

represent the bells of this church.

Tracker organ

The organ was built by

Richard Bridge Richard Bridge or Bridges (died 1758) was a leading English organ-builder of the eighteenth century. In 1748 (according to the ''Morning Advertiser'' of 20 February) he was living in Hand Court, Holborn, London. Works His first recorded organ is ...

in 1756, and retains all the original wooden pipes. It is one of the few surviving examples of a

tracker organ Tracker action is a term used in reference to pipe organs and steam calliopes to indicate a mechanical linkage between keys or pedals pressed by the organist and the valve that allows air to flow into pipe(s) of the corresponding note. This is ...

without pedals. It is in need of restoration.

Church organ

The church is equipped with a modern electric organ that is used regularly for church services, worship, concerts, and recording. It was the organ used in the

Serafina Steer Serafina Steer (born 30 April 1982) is an English harpist, pianist, singer and songwriter. Early life and education Steer is the daughter of composer Michael Maxwell Steer and stage designer Deirdre Clancy. She started learning the harp at ...

album '' The Moths Are Real'', produced by

Jarvis Cocker Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician and radio presenter. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp, he became a figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Following P ...

Media use

Between 2010 and 2014, the church was used in the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

TV comedy series '' Rev.'', as a fictional Shoreditch church named St Saviour in the Marshes. In 2011 the church featured in series two of ''Luther''.

Distinguished parishioners

James Parkinson James Parkinson (11 April 175521 December 1824) was an English surgeon, apothecary, geologist, palaeontologist and political activist. He is best known for his 1817 work ''An Essay on the Shaking Palsy'', in which he was the first to describe ...

(1755–1824), after whom

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

is named, and who lived at

Hoxton Square Hoxton Square is a public garden square in the Hoxton area of Shoreditch in the London Borough of Hackney. Laid out in 1683, it is thought to be one of the oldest in London. Since the 1990s it has been at the heart of the Hoxton national (digita ...

nearby, is commemorated with a stone tablet inside the church; his grave is in the churchyard. William Lewin, an

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

churchman, tutor, and member of parliament, was buried in the church in 1598. John George Appold, FRS (1800–65), a pioneer of the

centrifugal pump Centrifugal pumps are used to transport fluids by the conversion of rotational kinetic energy to the hydrodynamic energy of the fluid flow. The rotational energy typically comes from an engine or electric motor. They are a sub-class of dynamic ...

, is commemorated with a stone tablet inside the church. The Rev.

Samuel Annesley Samuel Annesley (c. 1620 – 1696) was a prominent Puritan and nonconformist pastor, best known for the sermons he collected as the series of ''Morning Exercises''. Life He was born in Haseley, in Warwickshire in 1620, and christened on the 26th ...

(1620–96), the prominent

nonconformist Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to: Culture and society * Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior *Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity ** ...

minister and father of

Susanna Wesley Susanna Wesley (née Annesley; 20 January 1669 – 23 July 1742) was the daughter of Dr Samuel Annesley and Mary White, and the mother of John Wesley, John and Charles Wesley. “…although she never preached a sermon or published a book o ...

(thus grandfather of

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

and

Charles Wesley Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788) was an English leader of the Methodist movement. Wesley was a prolific hymnwriter who wrote over 6,500 hymns during his lifetime. His works include " And Can It Be", " Christ the Lord Is Risen ...

), is buried in an unmarked plot in the churchyard. Thomas Fairchild (1667–1724), a pioneer gardener and the author of ''The City Gardener'', endowed an annual

Whitsun Whitsun (also Whitsunday or Whit Sunday) is the name used in Britain, and other countries among Anglicans and Methodists, for the Christian High Holy Day of Pentecost. It is the seventh Sunday after Easter, which commemorates the descent of the Ho ...

sermon at the church on either ''The Wonderful World of God in the Creation'' or ''On the Certainty of the Resurrection of the Dead proved by Certain Change of the Animal and Vegetable Parts of the Creation''. These sermons became locally known as "The Vegetable Sermon", and continued into the 1990s. The Tudor diplomat Thomas Legh (?1511-1545) is also buried here. Katherine Stafford, wife of

Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland KG (21 February 1498 – 24 April 1549), was an English peer and soldier. He was the grandson of Ralph Neville, 3rd Earl of Westmorland, and the father of Henry Neville, 5th Earl of Westmorland. Family ...

, is buried here.

Johannes Banfi Hunyades János Bánfihunyadi ( hu, Bánfihunyadi János; 1576 – 28 August 1646), better known by his Latinized name Johannes Banfi Hunyades or his pseudonym Hans Hungar, was a Hungary, Hungarian alchemist, chemist and metallurgist. He emigrated to Eng ...

, Hungarian

alchemist Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscience, protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in Chinese alchemy, C ...

and

metallurgist Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

, attended the church and two of his children, Johannes (1621–1696) and Elizabeth (1620–1710), have monumental graves in the crypt of the church.*

References

;Notes *Cherry, B and Pevsner, N (1998) ''The Buildings of England. London 4: North''. Penguin. *Sugden, K. (n.d) ''Under Hackney: The Archaeological Story''. (Friends of Hackney Archives).

External links

ourpasthistory.comDiocese of London church detailshttp://www.shoreditchchurch.org.uk/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Leonard's, Shoreditch

Rebuilt churches in the United Kingdom 18th-century Church of England church buildings Diocese of London Shoreditch