| |
|
|
|
|
To all intents and purposes, this is a tiny
medieval church sandwiched between office blocks and
cowering under the City's largest towers off of
Bishopsgate. Early 20th Century photographs show it
fronted by shops as at St Peter Cornhill and St Mary
Moorgate, the large spectacles of the opticians
particularly pleasing. The west wall was extended
northwards to cover the gap between the church and the
shops next door, making the building seem somewhat out of
kilter. This is what many small City churches were like
at the start of the 20th Century.The conventional narrative of the City is
one of more than a hundred little parishes served by
medieval churches, the Great Fire destroying them, and
the consequent rebuilding of some of them, especially by
Wren. Certainly, before the Great Fire there were lots of
little medieval churches scattered throughout the City,
but those on the edge like St Ethelburga survived the
advance of the flames. However, many of these were later
demolished, being in the way of huge building projects
like the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange and Queen
Victoria Street, and St Ethelburga was one of the few
survivors. There was a major restoration in the early
20th Century by Ninian Comper, the rood screen being his,
the glass too. When the shops in front were removed, the
false wall that extended to the north was removed from
the frontage, restoring a sense of balance but also
perhaps taking away something of the character. As Simon
Bradley notes, its atmosphere was that of a sleepy
village church. The church survived the Blitz intact, and
with its frontage onto Bishopsgate it was a visible
reminder of the City's long past. It would be fair to say
that it was much loved.
On Saturday 24th April 1993, the
Irish Republican Army parked a one tonne ammonium
nitrate/fuel oil bomb in a truck outside the front of St
Ethelburga. Warnings were given more than an hour before
the device was timed to go off - as with the Baltic
Exchange bomb the previous year, the main idea of the
attack was to cause as much damage to buildings as
possible. When it exploded just before half past ten, the
little church was vaporised. All that survived was the
arcade and part of the south wall.
The explosion caused more than
£350 million worth of damage in the Square Mile - the
Baltic Exchange bombing a hundred yards off the previous
year had caused £800 million worth of damage. There's no
doubt that the insurance companies told the Major
government that the City was unsustainable if attacks
continued. A ring of steel was enforced around the Square
Mile, and by 1997 the Good Friday agreement had been
signed.
But where did this leave St
Ethelburga? A number of schemes were put forward,
including that the site should be enclosed in a glass box
as a memorial to the victims of terrorism. However, it
was eventually decided that the church should be rebuilt
as far as possible on its pre-bomb lines, and that is how
you see it today. Many of the furnishings salvaged from
the wreckage were reinstated, although of course the
Comper glass was lost. The church is now a centre for
reconciliation and peace. I noticed recently that it is
also being used for the services of the Orthodox Church
on a Saturday evening.
Simon Knott, December 2015
location: Bishopsgate EC2N 4AG 3/025
status: reconciliation centre
access: open Friday 11-3, other times by
arrangement. Probably, you could just knock on the door.
       
Commission
from Amazon.co.uk supports the running of this site
|
|
|
|
|
|
