Guild Church of St Ethelburga the Virgin

Details

BISHOPSGATE, EC2 TQ 3381 SW East Side) 11/350 Church of St Ethelburga 4.1.50 I

Guild church. Late C14/early C15 with later alterations including work between 1912 and 1914 by Sir Ninian Comper; built on the site of an older church and incorporating some of the materials. Rag stone and brick with stone dressings and quoins to tower; returns rendered. 4 bays with southern aisle plus western tower and having a rear vestry hall and 5-bay _loggia (c1902-04) forming 2 sides of a small courtyard; a small church being approximately 56 1/2 feet long and 30 feet high, surrounded on 3 sides by tall C20 buildings. Western tower with central pointed arch, moulded doorway having C20 part-glazed doors; above, a segmental headed 3-light traceried window. Coped parapet beneath which a clock face. Late C18 2-stage rectangular bell-turret, each stage with projecting dentil cornice, surmounted by an ogee roof with weathervane dated 1671. Interior has a tower separated from the nave by an arch. Aisle piers with 4 shafts and 4 hollows, 2-centred double-hollowed-chamfered arches. Roof, with gilded cherubim corbels, renewed 1830s. Two cinquefoil headed piscinas, c1400, on south wall a chancel (traces of paint) and south aisle wall. Fragments of incorporated earlier building exposed in north nave wall. Segmental headed clerestory lights with C20 plain glass glazing. 4 stained glass windows by Leonard Walker, dedicated between 1928 and 1947, to north and south aisles, 3 dedicated to Henry Hudson (he and his crew took communion here in 1607 before they set out on their quest for the North-West Passage) and a fourth to the Revd. W.F. Geikie-Cobb (rector 1900-41). Unusual eastern aisle window 1936 by Hugh Easton, dedicated to Harriette Geikie-Cobb (the rector's wife); 3 figures of love, joy and peace in an idealised landscape.5-light eastern window under moulded 4-centred arch by Kempe, 1878, replacing an earlier one in a classical setting. Three pieces of C15 glass in a western window and 4 pieces of C17 heraldic glass in sanctuary and chapel. Reredos in the form of a painted mural, depicting the crucified and risen Christ, St Luke with a patient and St Ethelburga with children, by Hans Feibusch, 1962. 5-arch wooden screen by comper, c1912, with fan-vaulted spandrels supporting a rood loft with openwork balustrade. Also by Comper, the plain western gallery with spiral stair and other woodwork including the alter candlesticks and standards. Hexagonal C18 font with C17 Carved wooden cover from destroyed St Swithen, London stone. Wall monuments mostly early C19 but one to John Cornelius Linkbeck, dated 1655; a plain marble architraved tablet with pilaster and coat of arms. Rear courtyard, on the site of former graveyard; with octagonal pond, 1923, having central terracotta fountain possibly by the Potters Arts Guild, Compton. St Ethelburga's is one of eight pre- 1666 churches left in the City. Until 1932 the western tower was partly obscured by 2 shops of c1570 and c1613 with a tunnel-like porch giving access to the church doorway and later upper storey accommodation extending across the facade masking the west window. The C18 bell turret replaced a steeple from which came the present C17 weathervane. In the latter part of the C19 the church was in the Van of the Catholic revival; it became a guild church in 1954.

Listing NGR: TQ3318581361

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

199317

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.