St Clement's Church, King Square, is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), 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 com ...

Finsbury Finsbury is a district of Central London, forming the southeastern part of the London Borough of Islington. It borders the City of London. The Manorialism, Manor of Finsbury is first recorded as ''Vinisbir'' (1231) and means "manor of a man c ...

Central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning the City of London and several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local gove ...

, in the

London Borough of Islington The London Borough of Islington ( ) is a London borough, borough in North London, England. Forming part of Inner London, Islington has an estimated population of 215,667. It was formed in 1965, under the London Government Act 1963, by the amalg ...

. It is adjacent to King Square, within a walking distance from

City Road City Road or The City Road is a road that runs through central London. The northwestern extremity of the road is at Angel where it forms a continuation of Pentonville Road. Pentonville Road itself is the modern name for the eastern part of Lo ...

Construction

Church Building Commission purchased the land in King Square from the

St Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 by Rahere, and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust. History Early history Barts was founded in 1123 by ...

in 1822 for the construction of a new church fronting a newly built

garden square A garden square is a type of communal garden in an urban area wholly or substantially surrounded by buildings; commonly, it continues to be applied to public and private parks formed after such a garden becomes accessible to the public at large. ...

of middle-class villas. Foundation stone was laid on 27 January 1822. French ex-prisoners-of-war and the local community were likely involved in the construction. The building was designed by the neo-classical architect

Thomas Hardwick Thomas Hardwick (1752–1829) was an English architect and a founding member of the Architects' Club in 1791. Early life and career Hardwick was born in Brentford, Middlesex the son of a master mason turned architect also named Thomas Hard ...

, designer of

St Marylebone Parish church St Marylebone Parish Church is an Anglican church on the Marylebone Road in London. It was built to the designs of Thomas Hardwick in 1813–17. The present site is the third used by the parish for its church. The first was further south, near ...

. The design style was Greek (Ionic), though it features a slender spire, traditionally a Gothic feature. Construction was completed in July 1824 and cost £17,000. In its original layout and with galleries on three sides the church had space for 1600 worshipers; it was consecrated as St Barnabas, King Square on 12 June 1826. At the time the church was part of the St Luke's parish; it was designated a separate parish in 1846.

20th century

In 1940 the church and nearby housing in the parish suffered damage from German bombing in the

London Blitz London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Tha ...

. The burned out church was repaired and the formerly plain galleried interior re-ordered in 1953 by architects working with designer Norman Haines with a compact interior of considerable grandeur. The sanctuary and nave are framed by giant Corinthian columns and

pilasters In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

and there is a neo-classical plaster ceiling. Some fittings from St Clement's church and the fine 18th century pulpit from St Marylebone chapel we re-used. The altar sits beneath a corinthian baldacchino and two huge classical urns flank the altar. On completion in 1952 the parishes of St Barnabas, St Clement, Lever Street and St Matthew, City Road were united as the other two churches were badly damaged by bombing. Re-consecrated on 12 June 1954 at which point parish changed its name to St Clement with St Barnabas and St Matthew, and the church known as St Clement's Finsbury for short. The building is Grade II listed and is the only survival of the King Square of 1822.

Organ

The church organ was built by "Father" Willis for St Thomas,

Agar Town Agar Town (also known as Ague Town, Hagar Town, Agar-Town and Agar-town) was a small, historically poor neighbourhood of St Pancras, London, St Pancras in central London. Most of the area was demolished making way for St Pancras railway station ...

in the 1870s and moved to St Clements as part of the 1950s reconstruction, with some alterations, by Manders.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Clement's Church King Square King's Square Diocese of London King's Square

Construction

20th century

Organ

See also

References