Christ Church, Spitalfields
Christ Church Spitalfields is an Anglican church built between 1714 and 1729 to a design by Nicholas Hawksmoor. On Commercial Street in the East End and in today's Central London it is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, on its western border facing the City of London, it was one of the first of the so-called "Commissioners' Churches" built for the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches, which had been established by an Act of Parliament in 1711.
| Christ Church | |
|---|---|
| 51°31′8.73″N 00°04′27.05″W | |
| Location | London, E1 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Churchmanship | Low Church Evangelical |
| Website | www |
| History | |
| Status | Parish church |
| Consecrated | July 1729 |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Active |
| Heritage designation | Grade I listed |
| Architect(s) | Nicholas Hawksmoor |
| Style | English Baroque |
| Specifications | |
| Number of spires | 1 |
| Spire height | 202 feet (62 m) |
| Administration | |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Diocese | London |
| Archdeaconry | Hackney |
| Clergy | |
| Rector | Darren Wolf |
| Laity | |
| Organist(s) | Gerard Brooks |
| Parish: Spittlefields, Stepney Act 1727 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
| Long title | An Act for making the Hamlet of Spittle-fields in the Parish of Saint Dunstan Stebunheath, alias Stepney, in the County of Middlesex, a distinct Parish, and for providing a Maintenance for the Minister of such new Parish. |
| Citation | 2 Geo. 2. c. 10 |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
The purpose of the Commission was to acquire sites and build fifty new churches to serve London's new settlements. This parish was carved out of the circa 1 square mile (2.6 km2) medieval Stepney parish for an area then dominated by Huguenots (French Protestants and other 'dissenters' who owed no allegiance to the Church of England and thus to the King) as a show of Anglican authority. Some Huguenots used it for baptisms, marriages and burials but not for everyday worship, preferring their own chapels (their chapels were severely plain compared with the bombastic English Baroque style of Christ Church) though increasingly they assimilated into English life and Anglican worship – which was in the eighteenth century relatively plain.
The Commissioners for the new churches including Christopher Wren, Thomas Archer and John Vanbrugh appointed two surveyors, one of whom was Nicholas Hawksmoor. Only twelve of the planned fifty churches were built, of which six were designed by Hawksmoor.