Plaque

Christ Church Spitalfields - fire

Inscription

On Ash Wednesday February 17 1836 this tower was burnt by fire.  A peal of twelve bells, a clock with chimes, most of the interior masonry and all the wood work from the ceiling of the parish vestry room upwards were entirely destroyed.  By the spontaneous liberality of the parishioners and a few others and by an effective application of their contributions this damage was substantially repaired with a very inconsiderable outlay of the parish funds.

William Stone MA - Rector
William Sykes, Thomas Brushfield – Church Wardens

Did they point out that the fire happened on Ash Wednesday because they saw the humour? And "a very inconsiderable outlay" is not how we would express the concept of "a small amount" today.

Site: Christ Church Spitalfields - porch (3 memorials)

E1, Commercial Street, Christ Church Spitalfields - porch

Church, erected 1714 - 29, by Hawksmoor. Church website. The church has a history of selecting nominatively-determined architects: Ewan Christian and Samuel William Iron (see Isambard Brunel for more.)

These 3 plaques are inside the porch: 'fire' and 'alterations' on the back wall, with 'western entrance' on the left side wall.

This 1890 map is useful.

The rest of the text here comes from a modern information board in the garden to the south of the church:

Christ Church Gardens - Purchased by the church commissioners from the Heath distillery family for £600 in 1711, they stretched from Brick Lane in the east to the back of the houses in Red Lyon Street in the west. By 1732 the engine house occupied the south west corner with Christ Church School standing in the north west corner of the gardens.

An 1838 parliamentary report described Spitalfields as one of the poorest, most overcrowded and most crime-ridden districts in London: harbouring “an extremely immoral population”. During 1843-45 Red Lyon Street and its slums were cleared to make way for the new Commercial Street which now runs alongside the church gardens. In June 1859 the churchyard was closed to burials and dedicated as a ‘lawn or ornamental ground’ with a new school building at the east end on Brick Lane opening in 1873.

In 1888 trams began running along Commercial Street, and in 1891 the local authority undertook the garden maintenance, however by 1903 the gardens were widely known as Itchy park; a notorious rendezvous for homeless men seeking casual work in the fruit market.

During the 1900’s the gardens housed a small park, an adventure playgound and a youth club. Entered through the gardens, the church crypt was used as an air raid shelter during the war. Today the gardens still provide space for rest and renewal in the lee of what many believe to the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor’s finest church building.

There are 4 other plaques on the outside of this church: 2 at the entrance to the crypt, on the south side of the porch, and 2 more on the north side.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Christ Church Spitalfields - fire

Subjects commemorated i

Christ Church Spitalfields - fire

British History On-line puts the blame squarely on the "negligence of the ste...

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Christ Church Spitalfields - fire

Created by i

Thomas Brushfield

Church warden at Christ Church Spitalfields in 1836. At Wikia we found a Tho...

Read More

Rector William Stone

Rector of Christ Church Spitalfields between, at least, 1837 - 1845. At Recol...

Read More

William Sykes

Church warden at Christ Church Spitalfields in 1836. We've found two sites wh...

Read More

This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Christ Church Spitalfields - fire

Also at this site i

Christ Church Spitalfields - alterations

Christ Church Spitalfields - alterations

"Entensive" seems to be a portmanteau (mash-up) of "extensive" and "intensive".

Read More

Christ Church Spitalfields - western entrance

Christ Church Spitalfields - western entrance

The western entrance is this porch but we can find no details of how it was i...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Parish Hall, St Mary's Bryanston Square

Parish Hall, St Mary's Bryanston Square

W1, Crawford Street, 34 - 36, Parish Hall

The Parish Hall, St Mary's, Bryanston Square. This stone was laid by H. R. H. The Princess Christian, 20th October 1897. Rev. H. Russel...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Wallace Cheesman

Wallace Cheesman

N5, Highbury Grange, 8

Wallace Bligh Cheesman, 1865 - 1947, founder of the Fawcett Association, lived here 1926 - 1927. London Borough of Islington Historic House

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
John Constable - Lower Terrace

John Constable - Lower Terrace

NW3, Lower Terrace, 2

John Constable, 1776 - 1837, artist, lived here in the summers of 1821 - 1822. Erected by the Hampstead Plaque Fund

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
River Effra - Rattray Road

River Effra - Rattray Road

SW2, Rattray Road jnctn

The plaque is in the pavement in front of the pillar box.

1 subject commemorated, 3 creators
Spiritualist Temple - Beard

Spiritualist Temple - Beard

NW1, Rochester Square, Rochester Square Spiritualist Temple

The wooden cross atop the building supports a neon cross, wired to an electrical box so rusty that we doubt it still lights the way for N...

4 subjects commemorated