Plaque

St James's war damage

St James's Church Garden St James's war damage

Erection date: 19/6/1954

Inscription

This church, built by Sir Christopher Wren, consecrated on July 13th 1684, damaged by enemy action on October 14th 1940, was rededicated by William {stet}, Bishop of London, on June 19th 1954.
A.E. Richardson - Architect for the reconstruction
Charles E Lambert, rector, Nov.1922 - April 1954.
Geoffrey Bostock, Janet Scrutton - Churchwardens.

Site: St James's Church Garden (3 memorials)

SW1, Piccadilly

Looking at the cafe picture:
- The war damage plaque is on the wall that you can just see on the left.
- On the right you can see one of the four cherubs belonging to the Southwood fountain.

This former graveyard was opened as a garden, funded by Viscount Southwood, in 1946 by the Queen Mother.

On a visit in about 1998 we found a small hand-made memorial in amongst the plants, to Taffy, a tramp who had made the garden his home and had recently died. When we went back some years later with our camera this, not surprisingly, had gone so we sadly cannot include it here. 2012 - Discovering London (dead link) have a picture of Taffy's sign plus one for Mackerel the Rectory Cat.

2022: Watching the 1952 film, The Last Page, we recognised this garden as the location for an assignation for two of the characters (at about 1.5 hours in, on the TV version of the movie). The space looked fresh and clear of all the clutter that was there when we last visited.

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
St James's war damage

Subjects commemorated i

The Blitz

During WW2 Britain came under heavy bombing from Germany for 8 months, 1940-1...

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World War 2

Sorry, we've done no research on WW2, it's just too big a subject. But do vis...

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Sir Christopher Wren

Born East Knoyle, Wiltshire, died London.   Part of one of his churches, St A...

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This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
St James's war damage

Created by i

Geoffrey Rowley Bostock

Born Stafford.  A chartered accountant, in 1916 we find him appointed to wind...

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Charles E Lambert

Rector of St James's, Piccadilly, Nov.1922 - April 1954.

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Sir Albert Richardson

Architect. Born London. Our picture shows him as 'professor' in 1956.  Apart ...

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Janet Scrutton

Churchwarden of St James's, Piccadilly

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William Wand, Bishop of London

Bishop.  Born Grantham.  Bishop of London, 1945 - 1955. Died Lingfield, Surrey.

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
St James's war damage

Also at this site i

St James's Church Garden opening

St James's Church Garden opening

Mary of Nazareth by Sir Charles Wheeler P.R.A., presented in 1975. This gard...

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Viscount & Viscountess Southwood - St James's

Viscount & Viscountess Southwood - St James's

The ashes of both Southwoods are in the memorial at the top of the steps. Th...

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Nearby Memorials

Wash-house foundation stone

Wash-house foundation stone

SW1, Great Smith Street, Westminster Archives Centre

Seems likely that the F. J. Smith is the same architect as the one who built Caxton Hall with William Lee. Andrew Behan has researched s...

10 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
Air raid

Air raid

WC1, John Street, 36

Very small plaque on the doorframe.

1 subject commemorated
Sir Reginald Rowe

Sir Reginald Rowe

W11, St Anns Road

Dedicated to Sir Reginald Rowe, 1868 - 1945. Octavia Hill and Rowe Housing Trust 1987

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Founders' Hall - Cloth Fair, plaque with crest

Founders' Hall - Cloth Fair, plaque with crest

EC1, Cloth Fair, 1

This was the third site of the Founders Hall which was built here 1985-7.  The two plaques are either side of a very impressive solid woo...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Joe Strummer squat

Joe Strummer squat

NW1, Daventry Street, 33

Strummer lived here in a squat with the band, the 101ers, named after a previous squat they'd occupied at 101 Walterton Road, W9.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator