St Mary's Cable Street

St Mary's Cable Street: a brief history

This parish, originally part of Christ Church, Watney Street, was a very poor slum know as Sun Tavern Fields, or No Man's Land. The Vicar of Christ Church, William Quekett, had opened schools in arches under the London and Blackwall Railway, and in 1847 he appealed for funds to build permanent schools and a church. Lord Richard Grosvenor laid the foundation stone of a new school, designed by George Smith, who was architect to the Mercers' Company, on 2 May 1848. This was opened on 12 October 1849 on the same day that Lord Haddo, the eldest son of the Earl of Aberdeen, laid the foundation stone of the new church.

Lord Haddo had known the district for some years, having been connected with St Jude's Whitechapel, and had admired the work of Mr Quekett. When he had heard about the need for a church in the area he at once offered to build and endow one. Frederick J Francis, the architect of St Jude's, designed a simple church without a tower and spire, which was to seat 1000. The idea of adding a tower and spire occurred to Lord Haddo while the church was being built, and Francis was told to design and build them. The total cost of building St Mary's Church, including an endowment of £3,200, was £10,000.

The building was consecrated by the Bishop of Winchester on 22 May 1850, on which occasion the donor modestly sat at the back of the church and refused an invitation to the luncheon that followed. The dedication to St Mary was made at Lord Haddo's request as a tribute to his wife.

The church is designed in the early 'middle-pointed' style of the early fourteenth century, and built in brick faced in coursed limestone. It consists of a nave and aisles of five bays with a shallow chancel. The base of the tower forms the lower vestry. A room at first-floor level, open to the chancel to the north, was probably originally intended as the organ chamber, but now serves as the upper vestry. There is a small gallery at the west end of the nave. Galleries were probably intended for the north and south aisles, but these were never constructed.

There are two fonts, both by the west porch: one, the original, is a large stone construction with an unusual wooden cover. The second, a small wooden one, serves as a holy water stoup, and came originally from the chapel of a home for fallen women in Paddington.

The original pulpit was of stone, but was later replaced by one of carved oak, said to have come from a demolished City church c1880. This, and the original choir stalls, were removed in the re-ordering of the church in 1986. In the short chancel, the High Altar and tester above it were installed in the 1950s as a memorial to Fr Robert Thornewill, who was the Vicar from 1914 to 1950. The nave altar and reordering were executed in memory of Fr Peter Clynick, the Vicar from 1959 to 1985.

One of the more remarkable pieces of furniture in the church is a lectern of carved wood, representing an angel with outstretched wings, above an anchor. The base and stand are of different origins, and the piece predates the building of the church, probably made up from late seventeenth century woodwork. The communion rails in the south aisle are of a similar date. The painted altar in the south aisle came from a convent in Kilburn, c1890. On the wall of the south aisle hangs an unusual memorial board with names, including donors, from 1864 to 1956.

In the north aisle there is a series of five stained glass windows, c1930, by Christopher Charles Powell. They illustrate various incidents in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary: the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Birth of Christ, the Presentation in the Temple and the Epiphany. The pipe organ was installed very soon after the consecration of the church, and is a virtually unaltered early example of the work of 'Father' Willis.

In the late 1980s the original clergy house and hall were demolished and rebuilt. The clergy house now forms part of a small block of flats, All Saints Court, opposite the west door of the church. The hall, opened in 1991, consists of three storeys, two of which house the Tower Hamlets Community Drugs Team. In 2007 a building was constructed behind the hall, in partnership with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, to provide more facilities in the field of drug counselling services.

For further details please contact:

Revd Peter McGeary
St Mary's Clergy House
All Saints Court
68 Johnson Street
London E1 0BQ

020 7790 0973
mcgeary@pmcg.demon.co.uk

Parish records are not kept at the church, but deposited at:

The London Metropolitan Archives
40 Northampton Road
London EC1R 0HB

020 7332 3820

Vicars of St Mary's

William Quekett ???
W McCall
Henry Sinden 1864-
Henry Newman 1887-98
Gerald Munk 1898-1908
Arthur Harold Barlee 1908-14
Robert Surtees Thornewill 1914-50
Dudley Heryet 1953-58
Peter Charles Clynick 1959-85
John David Marshall Paton 1986-89 (Priest in Charge)
1989-92 (Vicar)
Jeremy Victor Smith 1993-97
Peter McGeary 1998-

St Mary's Cable Street

Friday, 9 November 2007

St Mary's Cable Street: a brief history

St Mary's Cable Street

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