Church Of St Matthew

A parish church built between 1743 and 1746 by George Dance the Elder, located on St Matthew's Row, E2. The church was restored by T.E. Knightley in 1861 following fire damage, and subsequently restored by Anthony Lewis of Michael Tapper & Lewis after Second World War bomb damage, being reconsecrated in 1961.

The building is constructed of stock brick with stone dressings in the Classical style. It follows a large rectangular plan with a west portico. The west elevation features a tower rising above a pedimented and slightly advanced central section. A central doorway has a stone surround and portico with Doric columns; the panelled doors include a fanlight and stone archivolt with keystone and impost blocks. Stone quoins emphasise the easternmost and westernmost bays and the tower.

The side elevations feature quoins with slightly advanced bays returning to north and south, each formerly having a gallery door. These elevations continue with five further bays, topped with a dentil cornice. The upper windows sit beneath moulded rounded arches with a continuous stone band at impost level; below are similar but shorter windows positioned above the stone plinth. The parapet has been rebuilt. The eastern bay is again slightly advanced with quoins. The wide east end displays a full-width parapet (rebuilt in a sympathetic style) and a rebuilt Venetian window with Ionic pilasters and niches in the smaller apertures, where a formerly taller arched opening now stands blocked by the Lady Chapel. The roof was rebuilt and the interior completely remodelled in the 1950s.

Internally, the entrance leads to a plain vestibule containing a hung wooden war memorial, opening into a mostly open plan now without aisles or side galleries. The post-war refurbishment includes an upper-level Lady Chapel at the east end, supported by concrete columns and faced with African hardwoods and elm-veneered folding screen with panelling carrying the apostles by Peter Snow, creating the appearance of an elevated reredos. Behind this, the Lady Chapel is reached by a prominent stair to the south. Its wall and balustrade bear a bas relief depicting the war between Heaven and Hell and St. Michael and the angels doing battle with the devil, executed by Kim James. The Chapel contains wall paintings by Barry Robinson and sand-blasted glass doors by Heather Child. The altar below displays sculptured panels by Robert Dawson. A new gallery at the west end, with metal balustrade, carries the organ. The font is an elegant vesica-shaped design in marble by Anthony Lewis. Around the exterior walls are the Stations of the Cross in wood-kiln-fired ceramic by Donald Potter; the walls are otherwise plain with clear glass. The roof comprises steel-framed trusses with woodwool slab covering.

The Church of St Matthew was built as the church of the newly created parish of Bethnal Green. Nicholas Hawksmoor had produced plans for St Matthew's for the 50 Churches Commission of 1711, but like all but 12 of the planned new churches, these were never realised. Over thirty years later, the church was finally built to the designs of George Dance the Elder, whose prestigious Mansion House commission had just been completed in 1742. The site was chosen near the dense population of weavers in the area.

Following a fire in 1859 that destroyed the church's interior, rebuilding (which included adding a top to the tower) was undertaken to designs by T.E. Knightley. The church suffered enemy action in 1940, when bombing destroyed the interior and roof, though the external walls survived. A temporary church was established within the shell and dedicated in 1954. By 1961 the church had been rebuilt with Anthony Lewis of Michael Tapper & Lewis as architect. This was the first of Lewis's three post-war church rebuildings in Bethnal Green.