The Streets Of London – Part Ninety Nine
St Andrew Street, EC1
St Andrew Street is the south-eastern spur of Holborn Circus
and leads at its southern end into Shoe Lane. Between St Andrew Street and the
eastern spur of the Circus, which is the continuation of Holborn, is to be
found the largest of the parish churches designed by Christopher Wren, St
Andrew’s Holborn.
Quite when there was first a church on the site is lost in
the mists of time but there is a mention of an “old wooden church” in
the records of Westminster Abbey, dating to 951 CE. There are some doubts about
the veracity of the record as it is supposedly signed by King Edgar, who didn’t
ascend to the throne until 959. There may have been a slip of the clerical pen
or it may be a forgery but it is probably safe to assume there was a church
there, and had been so for many a year.
In 1348 an armourer who had made his fortune by the name of
John Thavie bequeathed his estate to the church for “the support of the fabric
forever”. Astonishingly, the proceeds from the fund still pay for the
upkeep of the church almost seven centuries later. During the 15th
century the wooden church was replaced by one built out of stone. In some ways
the church was a lucky one, surviving a lightning strike to the steeple in
1563, and escaping destruction during the Great Fire of 1666 when the wind
suddenly changed direction.
While surveying the devastated city, Wren thought that St
Andrew’s was in such poor condition, even if unscathed, that it needed
rebuilding. He saved the mediaeval tower, refacing it with marble, and rebuilt
the church from its foundations. Externally and internally it is typically
neoclassical in design, a hallmark of Wren’s work, but it is an oddity in that
it is a Wren church whose original had not been consumed by the flames of the
Great Fire. The church was not so lucky during the Second World War, its
interior being extensively damaged during the Blitz. It was restored
painstakingly to Wren’s original design.
In 1826 the surgeon, William Marsden, found a homeless girl
suffering from hypothermia, sitting on the church steps. He tried to get her
admitted to some of the hospitals in the area but she was turned away because
she couldn’t pay for her treatment. The girl died in Marsden’s arms and this
experience encouraged him to found, in 1828, the Free Hospital, whose aim was
to provide free healthcare to those who couldn’t afford it. It gained its Royal
moniker in 1837 in recognition of its work in treating cholera patients.
The registers in the church throw light on attempts to
secularise marriage during Cromwell’s interregnum. One entry reads, “An
agreement and intent of marriage between John Law and Ffrances Riley, both
servants to the Lady Brooke, of this parish, was published three several
markett-days in Newgate Markett”. Under a statute
passed in August 1653, the betrothed couple could chose between having their banns
read in church on three successive Sundays or proclaimed by a bellman in an
open market on three successive market days. Law and Riley clearly chose the
latter method.
The organ in the church is said to have been played
by Handel and if you step inside, do not miss a pair of blue=clad figures, a
boy and a girl, flanking the entrance to the west tower. These represent pupils
who attended charity shoes, their distinctive uniforms being blue because it
was the cheapest dye. Their stockings were often dyed with saffron because it
was thought it deterred rats from biting them. The statues originally stood
over the entrance to St Andrew’s Parochial School which was founded in 1696 and
moved to Hatton Garden in 1721. The statues were put in the church after it was
restored following its wartime damage.
