Churches in 1900 London: St Anne's Soho

Antiques from London on eBay

1753 J.POMFRET, 2 POETRY BOOKS IN A VOLUME, WARE LONDON
30 Aug 2010 at 1:05pm
US $49.99 (0 Bid)
End Date: Monday Sep-06-2010 11:05:12 PDT
Bid now | Add to watch list
Antique sterling silver LONDON 1888 mark SPOON 14.9 gr
30 Aug 2010 at 1:03pm
US $9.99 (0 Bid)
End Date: Monday Sep-06-2010 11:03:21 PDT
Bid now | Add to watch list

St. Anne's, Soho, was a distinctly typical London church.

Of intense ugliness outside, not due to Sir Christopher Wren its original designer but to S. P. Cockerell, who, in 1806, rebuilt the hideous tower and spire, of which the upper part resembled a beer-barrel skewered through, hardly contemplating that in 1900, it would be the only church-steeple visible from so central a spot as Piccadilly Circus!

At one time the interior of the church was considered handsome, and Arthur H Beavan confessed to admire its old-fashioned, stately, comfortable arrangements; but your modern church-goer would have described it as "a wide, squat, oblong that narrows down to a semi-circular apse at the east end, the walls of which are adorned with the marble monstrosities wherein our forefathers loved to enshrine their pious memories. Galleries of course - galleries - with more imposing staircases, green-baize doors, curtained recesses, and what not; the whole producing exactly the impression of a court of justice or council-chamber."

It had been, however, in 1900, recently modernized, electric light introduced, choir-stalls added, mosaic pavement laid down in aisle, passages, etc.

Royalty lies buried there in the person of Theodore, the exiled King of Corsica (obiit 1756).

Even in the days when St. Anne's was hidden away among the slums of Soho, the late Sir Joseph Barnby was the organist and it was famous for its musical services; and now that Shaftesbury Avenue had given it an accessible entrance-gate, it was in 1900, with the exception of St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey, and the Temple, the most popular church in London.

On Friday evenings during Lent Bach's Passion Music was a great attraction.

Next: St Margaret's Westminster