Guild Church Of St Ethelburga The Virgin

Guild Church of St Ethelburga the Virgin

A guild church on Bishopsgate, this building dates from the late 14th or early 15th century and incorporates materials from an earlier church that previously occupied the site. The structure was substantially altered between 1912 and 1914 by Sir Ninian Comper, and underwent further modifications around 1902 to 1904.

The church is constructed of ragstone and brick with stone dressings and quoins to the tower, with rendered returns. It comprises 4 bays with a southern aisle, a western tower, a rear vestry hall, and a 5-bay loggia (dating from around 1902 to 1904) which forms 2 sides of a small courtyard. The building measures approximately 56 and a half feet long and 30 feet high, and is now surrounded on 3 sides by tall 20th-century buildings.

The western tower features a central pointed arch with a moulded doorway containing 20th-century part-glazed doors. Above this is a segmental-headed 3-light traceried window. A coped parapet sits beneath a clock face. A late 18th-century 2-stage rectangular bell-turret, each stage having a projecting dentil cornice, is surmounted by an ogee roof with a weathervane dated 1671.

Interior

The interior features a tower separated from the nave by an arch. The aisle piers have 4 shafts and 4 hollows with 2-centred double-hollowed-chamfered arches. The roof, decorated with gilded cherubim corbels, was renewed in the 1830s. Two cinquefoil-headed piscinas dating from around 1400 are located on the south wall of the chancel and on the south aisle wall. Fragments of the earlier incorporated building are exposed in the north nave wall. Segmental-headed clerestory lights contain 20th-century plain glass glazing.

The church contains 4 stained glass windows by Leonard Walker, dedicated between 1928 and 1947, located in the north and south aisles. Three are dedicated to Henry Hudson, who with his crew took communion here in 1607 before departing on their quest for the North-West Passage; the fourth commemorates the Reverend W.F. Geikie-Cobb, rector from 1900 to 1941. An unusual eastern aisle window of 1936 by Hugh Easton is dedicated to Harriette Geikie-Cobb, the rector's wife, and depicts three figures representing love, joy and peace in an idealised landscape. The 5-light eastern window under a moulded 4-centred arch was created by Kempe in 1878, replacing an earlier window in a classical setting. Three pieces of 15th-century glass and 4 pieces of 17th-century heraldic glass are preserved in a western window, the sanctuary and the chapel.

The reredos, a painted mural by Hans Feibusch dating from 1962, depicts the crucified and risen Christ, St Luke with a patient, and St Ethelburga with children. A 5-arch wooden screen by Comper, dating from around 1912, features fan-vaulted spandrels supporting a rood loft with an openwork balustrade. Also by Comper are the plain western gallery with spiral stair and other woodwork including the altar candlesticks and standards.

A hexagonal 18th-century font is topped with a 17th-century carved wooden cover from the destroyed church of St Swithen, London Stone. Wall monuments are mostly from the early 19th century, though one monument to John Cornelius Linkbeck, dated 1655, survives—a plain marble architraved tablet with pilaster and coat of arms.

The rear courtyard occupies the site of a former graveyard and features an octagonal pond from 1923 with a central terracotta fountain, possibly by the Potters Arts Guild of Compton.

Historical Context

St Ethelburga's is one of eight pre-1666 churches surviving in the City of London. Until 1932, the western tower was partially obscured by two shops dating from around 1570 and 1613, with a tunnel-like porch providing access to the church doorway; later upper-storey accommodation extended across the facade, masking the west window. The 18th-century bell-turret replaced an earlier steeple from which the present 17th-century weathervane came. During the latter part of the 19th century, the church was at the forefront of the Catholic revival. It became a guild church in 1954.