Church Of St Dunstan In The West (Including Attached Sunday School)

The Church of St Dunstan in the West, with its attached Sunday School, represents a significant historical and architectural ensemble. The present church was built between 1830 and 1833 on a site with a church dating back to around 1170. The design, by John Shaw Senior (completed by his son after his death), is octagonal and features a yellow brick exterior with stone dressings. A prominent three-stage tower of Ketton stone stands to the south, featuring an ogee arch over the entrance, buttresses, crockets, triple arched windows with cinquefoil lights, and a slender octagonal stone lantern above. A memorial tablet to Izaac Walton was erected in 1895 to the right of the south door.

Attached to the east side of the church is a clock from 1671 by Thomas Harris, relocated in 1935. Above the clock is a wooden Ionic aedicule with two figures wielding clubs to strike bells, flanking a false door. The Northcliffe Memorial of 1930, designed by Lutyens and featuring a bronze bust by Lady Scott, is also present.

Inside, the church has a plaster vault supported by an iron structure, with pointed tunnel vaults, transverse ribs, and star-ribbed vaults above a clerestory of eight identical windows. A chancel is located to the north, with entrances to the west from Clifford’s Inn Passage and to the east, leading to the vestry. Fittings from the 1830s, also designed by Shaw, include pews, a font, and a pulpit with linenfold panelling. The altar surround incorporates early 16th-century Flemish woodwork, while the stalls contain fragments of late 17th-century pierced carving. The organ, built by Joseph Robson in 1834, resides within a case likely designed by Shaw. A northwest window, dedicated to Izaac Walton, features stained glass by Kempe and is set within an iconostasis brought from Antim Monastery Bucharest. A wrought iron sword rest, dating to 1745, is also present.

Monuments within the church include brass and figurative tombs from the 16th century, plus busts and wall tablets spanning the 16th to mid-19th centuries - all largely salvaged from the earlier church on the site. The attached Sunday School, dated 1839, features a stone facade with a parapet topped by ball finials. A central aedicule, incorporating a swansneck pediment from 1667 previously belonging to Ludgate, features a statue of Queen Elizabeth I, believed to have been made in 1586 by William Kerwin. Below the arch within the vestry porch are three decayed stone statues, reportedly representing King Lud and his sons, also from Ludgate.