LONDON CITY CHURCHES.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11486, 20 January 1903, Page 4

LONDON CITY CHURCHES.

The ohurche* of London •Pβ far more numerous than , the casual visitor or uninterested rfesid«nt Jw* *ny idea of. , There ate -many, of '00099, '-which cannoj; fail, by reason of their - prominent position, to be noticed, but there we many other* which have to oei" looked jfof to bp' founcL They lie to out-of-tille-way places, in the back* water* of .the great river of traffic that flows onoeijiiingly through the city atreete, and a 'Londoner! may live and die without even healing of them or seeing them, un» lees he bm some taut* for archaeology, or is in <som© way concerned in the city's reEgious life. Some of these churches ■hare long 'outlived' their usefulness; resident population <£»* drifted away from them, and jtht services are attended , bf no more than, a. 'handful 0$ people. Of late years the reformer has been at. work among these quaint eld churches.- Some have been pulled down,, the parishes aided to neighbouring parishes, and the stipends thus released employed - to "better purpose in other portiema of the diocese. So> far as it goesj this is a praiseworthy policy, but Mongers _ notoriously rather impabive people, and in , view of the gteat historical and archaeological interest attaching to eoine of fhe city church**, ihea» in good ground for the action now being taken, according to yesterday's cable message, to preserve those edifice*. that remain. T4ie mov«meitt ha.9 probably erisea in consequence of the recent proposal to deraolojih the Church of AH Haliow* Lombard street, which was designed built by Wren. All Hallows i» eald.to be known as "the invisible church, ,, became to reach it one' has to" pass through an archway and a passage from Lombard street. It is the survivor of three churches, the other two having been polled , down in recent rears. <x>ih were designed and built by Wren, and ore of them contained a pulpit canred by Gracing Gibbons. Hieir psiisiiea were add*d to that of All. Hallows, togetber with a third, wWija hai been without & church kake ih* ttreeb Fire, go that All Hallows really represents four parishes. It hw been urged, in support of the proposal to poll it down, and add it t© tl» jarisfa «< 6t. SOmoui Uμ Sia§ '' - ; - .' j

and ilartyr. abu> ia Lombard street* that, the value <sf fl»» sit* of ti» chwch and rectory, together wltn the annual mm represented by th* stipend of Uw iocumbent na&ikm neoessary parociiial esyawee, would provide a earn of SS6OM *.y«r, wbkb. tf was propoaed to «se ia »«gWitntißg the spiritual prevkioa foe poorer district*. Th* object is adnuraW*, b«* som* «eeoeptiott i* taken to tbe poKey of cumulation being applied to this particular ohuroh, firetly becau9* «3m ohnrch to wiiich it is proposed to add the parish ie a very small one, with an already xioh living, and secondly because there is come feeling that the process of destroying Wieo's churches hew gone lar enough. Wren rebuilt no fewer tban forty-nine of the city churches, and of these one-third ore said to have disappeared, the majority in very recent timea. All Hallows is not one of 3u9 masterpieces, but it is said to be a good eiamrple of his style, it has some excellent carving, and it possesses an artistic and historical value which should ensure its preservation against the wellmeaning iconoclasts to whom it only represents so much hard cash.