banner

History of the parish

Note that down the years many street names have changed. The first major renaming scheme was started in 1857 by the Metropolitan Board of Works, encouraged by the General Post Office, after the MBW was established by the Metropolis Management Act of 1855 (postal districts were introduced in the following year). Another took place in the 1890's, after the London County Council was formed, and the next big scheme occurred between 1929-45.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

After Queen Anne came to the throne (1702-14), under the terms of the Acts of Settlement designed to ensure the Protestant succession, and the Tories took power after 22 years of Whig rule, a New Churches in London & Westminster Act of 1710/1711 was passed, establishing a Commission to build fifty new churches in populous districts. [See here for details of a Walk to mark the 300th anniversary of the Act.] The agenda was as much political as pious, to control the working classes with imposing edifices towering over their homes and reminding them of the national religion - especially needed, it was believed, in the East End where immigration was taking hold and there were many dissenting conventicles. (This is why episcopal mitres feature in the decoration of the apse.) They were to be funded from a tax on coal - in theory, an infinite budget, but only twelve (including St George-in-the-East) were ever completed. All ran way over budget, and the scheme came to an end. There is much more about the architectural rationale, and Nicholas Hawksmoor the architect of six of these churches, on the Church & Churchyard page.

When the church opened in 1729, parts of 'Wapping-Stepney' were still semi-rural, with open fields, but the area was beginning to develop. Right is Roque's map of 1746. Merchants who were building houses nearby, or came from further afield, attended church in their carriages, and access into the church was socially segregated. The local trades were ship-rigging and rope-making, of which names like Cable Street and Ropewalk Gardens are a reminder - Cable Street was once the length of the standard cable measure, 600 feet [180m]. From the middle of the century hovels appeared in the marshlands behind Pennington Street, which soon became wholly built over. By 1780 there were 300 houses; by 1800, an average of 500-600 baptisms (rising to over 1,000 two decades later, before daughter churches were built), and 400-600 burials a year.

As with some other new East London parishes of this period, St George-in-the-East, though within the diocese of London, was exempt from the jurisdiction of any archdeacon, and this anomaly remained into the 19th century. The Vestry [see below] combined ecclesiastical and local government responsibilities, and was 'general' (as opposed to 'select', as elsewhere), open to all who paid 2s. or more per month to the poor. Robert Seymour's 1835 Survey of the Cities of London & Westminster - a part-published update of the work of the Elizabethan chronicler John Stow - gives details of the officers it appointed:  2 Churchwardens and 4 Overseers ('parish officers') and - from the lower and middling ranks of society - 1 Constable, 13 Headboroughs, 4 Scavengers (responsible for keeping the streets clean), and 2 Surveyors of the Highway ('peace officers'). Men were sometimes elected as councilmen and aldermen against their will, for business or religious reasons, in which case they paid a fine to be exempted. The parish was divided into two divisions, the upper and lower town (Seymour lists the streets in each). Edward Scott was elected Scavenger for the upper division of the parish in 1732, and Thomas Saunders of the lower division in 1748. The first parish clerk was Samuel Bright, formerly a barber and periwig-maker: the Vestry determined that this should be a full-time post. His successor was Thomas Harmer Lacon. Both of them frequently signed as witnesses in the marriage registers. (Seymour also noted that 'Prayers are held on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Holidays [sic] about 11 o'clock, no Organ [but see below], one Bell'.)

The original organ, of 3 manuals with 25 speaking stops, was installed in 1733 by Robert Bridge of Clerkenwell. The first organist, appointed in 1738, was John James, formerly of St Olave Southwark and possibly a trumpeter in the King's Musick. He was a star performer with a reputation for improvisation - it's said that Handel, Geminiani, Roseingrave, Greene, Pepusch and Boyce all heard him play. His voluntaries were taken up by other organists (one of them was taken for Handel's work) - they were said to be popular with ‘every deputy organist in London’ - and many survive because they combine inventive harmonic sequences with a good grasp of fugal technique. But he had his wilder side, enjoying bull-baiting and dog fights, and was addicted to spiritous liquors of the coarsest kind. He died in 1745.

On Sunday 1 October 1738 John Wesley preached at the morning and afternoon services at the church - see here for some details of the history of Methodism in the parish.The Gentleman's Magazine (vol 37) reported that on 4 March 1767 a private papist mass-house, which was kept at the back part of the house of a tradesman near Salt-petre bank [now Dock Street] was suppressed: about twenty mean-dressed people, with the priest, were assembled; but on the alarm of peace officers, made their escape at a back door.

Charity schools were established in the parish -  see here for an account of Raine's Foundation institutions from 1719 onwards, and here for the school founded in 1781 by the Middlesex Society, and also for an overview of all the subsequent educational foundations.

There were two early medical charities (unconnected with the church):

Another survival from this period - now, though not originally, in this parish (it was previously in St Mary Matfelon, then St Mark Whitechapel and then St Paul Dock Street) - is the Gunmakers' Company Proof House [left] at 46-50 Commercial Road. Gunmaking had long been a major local trade, centred in the area east of the Tower and in Saltpetre Bank [nw Dock Street], with many specialist worshops throughout the area. The Office of Ordnance (based near the Minories) regulated the supply of arms and gunpowder to the Army, and ran its own foundry. The Blacksmiths' and Carpenters' Companies both tried to dominate the trade, but in 1638 the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers was given a charter, naming 125 local gunmakers. Although a city livery company, it was banished from the City because of its hazardous work. The original proof house, for testing shotguns, was near Tower Hill but relocated to its present site in 1675, where it was rebuilt after damage caused by explosions in 1757 (and remains in use for testing and marking small arms gun barrels). More detail in Derek Morris & Ken Cozens Wapping 1600-1800 (East London History Society 2009), which also includes concerns voiced about the storage of gunpowder in the area in the late 17th century. The Company's Archivist, Derek Stimpson, edited the Company's official history as The Worshipful Company of Gunmakers: A History (London 2008)

Click here for details of the Rectors and Lecturers of this period, and here for a 1795 account of the church, churchyard and other places of worship in the parish. A fascinating article by Diana Markarill appears in The Ephemerist, no.148 (Spring 2010), based on the churchwardens' accounts for the late 18th and early 19th centuries, for work on the bells and organ, the payment of women for pew-opening duties and washing and mending linen, and for various entertainments. Horwood's map of London (1792-99) is available here and provides excellent detail. Developing areas not in the original parish, but now within its boundaries though parish mergers, include Goodman's Fields, Rosemary Lane [Royal Mint Street] and East Smithfield (including the site of the Royal Mint built in 1809).

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Gower's Walk Free School was founded in 1808 - its story is told here.

See here for the building of the Royal Mint in East Smithfield in 1809. The nearby Shovel public house was the site of an early example of the racial tensions that were to beset the area: it was reported that on 29 June 1787 local constables were beaten and turned out of the pub by over 40 black drinkers.

1811 saw the notorious Ratcliff Highway murders, described here, including details of reaction to the establishment of the Metropolitan Police in 1829. The church marked the 200th anniversary on 7 December 2011.

Here is a description of the elaborate funeral procession in 1824 for the vicar of Tottenham, who was buried here in a family vault near the west door. It contrasts sharply with the very basic arrangements for most parishioners' funerals!

The early 19th century saw the rise of small local 'friendly societies' - originally pub-based drinking clubs that organised mutual welfare by 'passing the hat', they became more organised through formal subscriptions, and later were linked to the temperance movement, and were controlled by legislation (they were the precursors of credit unions). Two that met at the George Tavern in St George's Street in the 1830s were the Eastern Burial Society and the True and Happy Friends Benefit Society.

The height of the parish's prosperity was in the 1810-20's: see here for some details of some of the residents of Cannon Street Road, and here for Wellclose Square (at that time, outwith the parish).

The Docks

Poverty and deprivation was soon to take hold. Rapid social change was triggered by the expansion of shipping, with its associated trades: see London and St Katharine's Docks (at the time, mainly in this parish but the area is now part of our daughter church St Peter London Docks). Laurie and Whittle's map of 1809, and Crutchley's of 1839 [right] show the impact; here is an 1810 list of authorised pilots, including many living in this parish.

London Docks were begun in 1802 (Lord Sidmouth, First Lord of the Treasury, laying the foundation stone on 26 June of that year, with 'genteel persons of both sexes' in attendance), and almost immediately enlarged; the adjacent St Katharine's Dock was opened in 1828. Vessels had to use the London Docks if they were bring tobacco or rice not of East or West India growth, or wine or spirits; other cargoes could unload elsewhere. Specialist warehouses (for example, wool and tobacco), and other trades, including the smelly sugar refining that employed over 1,000 German workers, sprang up. The docks brought incomers from many other nations - Greeks, Malays, Dutch, Scandinavians, Portuguese, Spanish and French. Thomas de Quincy wrote in 1810 Lascars, Chinese, Moors, Negroes were met at every step. Dock workers were poorly paid (5d. an hour) and poorly housed. An 1848 survey of 1651 heads of families living in the civil parish of St George-in-the-East showed that dock work had become the majority occupation, and two thirds of families existed on less than 25s. a week, with only 17% earning over 30s. Boarding houses, taverns and saloons brought crime. When Brian King became Rector in 1842, there were said to be 154 brothels in the parish. Railways also began to criss-cross the area.


Although the main provision for seafarers' needs was centred in the Dock Street area - see the Episcopal Floating Church page - St George-in-the-East set up two institutions: a Sailors' Rest Asylum (described on the Trinity Episcopal Chapel page)  and, from 1829, a Sailors' Orphan Girls Episcopal School and Asylum at 29 Cannon Street Road. Here forty orphans were taught and clothed, twenty of them resident and wholly provided for. The instruction given is purely scriptural, the Bible being the basis of all; the children are trained in the principles of the Established Church, and, as far as possible, in such moral and domestic habits as are likely to fit them for respectable service. Ten shillings and sixpence annual, or five guineas donation, constitute a governor - with the right to nominate residents. This system may strike us as open to abuse, but it remained the norm for such institutions for much of the century, and arguably provided a form of local accountability.

Civil administration and relief; public health
Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths was introduced nationally from 1 July 1837, and many churches saw a major blip in baptisms in the preceding days, because parents wanted to avoid the new system, and had got the false impression that baptisms would in future cost 7s 6d, because the Registrar would need to be present. (At Manchester Collegiate Church, now the Cathedral, and in those days the sole parish for the city, there were a staggering 7,285 baptisms that year.) At St George-in-the-East there were 125 baptisms on 25 June, 149 on 28 June and 163 on 30 June (compared with 105 for all the preceding weeks) - see here for more details of how this was handled. (A 1s. or 1/6d. fee for baptism - or at least, for registration and the clerk's attendance - was common at the time despite being counter to church teaching that the sacraments should be available without charge; fees were made illegal by the Baptism Fees Abolition Act 1872.) See here for statistics, and also comments on non-Anglican marriages.

The 1831 census (and clerical directories for this period) gave the population as 38,505, and poor relief expenditure for 1833-35 was £17,706 or 9s 2s per ratepayer. In 1836, the parish was constituted as a Poor Law parish under the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, administered by 18 elected Guardians. They took over responsibility for the parish workhouse, built at least ten years earlier in Farthing Fields, between Prusom Street and Princes Street [now Raine Street] in Wapping, and authorised £2,000 for its extension. By 1847 the population was 47,362 but expenditure was slightly down - £16,474. The Guardians also operated a 'casual ward' for vagrants in Raymond Street, off Green Bank, in Wapping. In 1851 they built an industrial school for 150 boys, 120 girls and 80 infants in Green Lane, Plashet, for which the church provided a chaplain.

[In 1925 St George-in-the-East joined Stepney Poor Law Union; five years later the London County Council took over the building and it became St George-in-the-East Hospital; it closed in 1956 and was demolished in 1963. Its records for 1930-56 are at the Royal London Hospital Archives & Museum. The school in Plashet closed in 1927.]

In 1844 the Association for Promoting Cleanliness among the Poor built baths and a laundry for the 'destitute poor' in Glasshouse Yard [now John Fisher Street], which was used by 27,662 bathers and 35,480 washers in its first year. Bathers and washers paid one penny, ironers a farthing. The Association also provided whitewash, and lent buckets and pails. Its success led to an Act of Parliament in 1846 'To encourage the Establishment of Baths and Wash-houses', funded from the rates. See here for the major part that William Quekett, Lecturer and Curate of the parish, played in this, arguing that it was both philanthropic and would in the long term bring savings to ratepayers [1846 handbill on right]. In Curiosities of London: Exhibiting the Most Rare and Remarkable (1855), p33, John Timbs noted that  ... so strong was the love of cleanliness thus encouraged that women often toiled to wash their own and their children's clothing, who had been compelled to sell their hair to purchase food to satisfy the cravings of hunger. However, in 1850 the Vestry passed a resolution objecting to the establishment of further facilities in the parish.

Local government in London was chaotic, with various self-selected boards and committees responsible for poor relief, highways and sewerage. For instance, there were 136 Commissioners for Sewers for the Tower Hamlets, with an office in Alie Street. There were many fires in the area, but firefighting was unco-ordinated: parishes had their own engines, as did insurance companies. See here for a note on the development of the London Fire Brigade.

The main authority was the Public Vestry, elected each Easter by ratepayers.  Sir Benjamin Hall's Metropolis Management Act of 1855 swept these away and created a Select Vestry (chaired by the incumbent) and Boards for each parish. In 1856 the High Court dealt with a dispute between the new Vestry and London Docks over the rate levied on the Docks for street paving. St George's Town Hall on Cable Street was originally the Vestry Hall, built in 1861 at a cost of £6,000. Here is a ticket for a dinner held there in 1874 to mark the Duke of Edinburgh's marriage. Some local streets still bear members' names: for example, of Frederick Dellow (Overseer) and William Stutfield JP (trustee), both of whom lived in St George Street.  [The 1899 London Government Act replaced Vestries with 28 Borough Councils, when the new Stepney Borough Council took over the building as a local Town Hall; it is now used for a variety of local projects.] 

It was the Vestry that elected churchwardens for the parish each year, and could be 'packed' to secure the appointment of wardens hostile to the church and Rector, as happened regularly in the coming years, particularly when Bryan King was Rector. [Even though Parochial Church Councils were created by the 'Enabling Act' of 1919, churchwardens are still technically appointed by residents of the parish rather than church members, though these days this is mainly a technicality.] 

Under the 1855 Act, Medical Officers of Health were appointed for each District. The Registrar General published weekly, monthly and annual Tables of births and deaths, classified by causes - see here for the 1858 categories. ('Bills of Mortality' had been published in London since the late 16th century.) For example, in the first quarter of 1858 in the St George-in-the-East District there were 55 deaths from measles, 12 from scarlatina, 45 from whooping cough, 2 from diarrhœa and 7 from typhus; 26 men and 39 women died in the parish workhouse: see here for the full figures. It was the only district where the rate of deaths from scarlet fever fell between 1851-60 and 1861-70. 

The Metropolitan Sanitary Commission had made its first report in 1848 - see here (p17) the evidence of R. Bowie, surgeon, who had been practising in Burr Street, East Smithfield, at the time of the 1832 cholera outbreak. Between 1854-55 the quality of water provided by the various companies was monitored, and reported to the General Board of Health (Medical Council) - this was to become significant in checking the spread of the disease, which had previously been thought to be transmitted by air rather than water (see Steven JohnsonThe Ghost Map (Penguin 2008) for an imaginative account of this issue). Two samples from the East London Company produced a scary result [right]. See here for the gruesome story of Aldgate Pump (at the junction of Fenchurch and Leadenhall Streets: 'east of Aldgate Pump' became a common term for the East End), and its historical associations. Its 'mineral salts' were prized until it was discovered that this was the result of calcium from human bones leeching into the water; it was connected to a mains supply in 1876.

Another cause of death, common in this area, was the result of baby farming, whereby daily nurses were hired to take charge of the unwanted children of prostitutes and others, on the tacit understanding that they would die of neglect and starvation (often recorded as 'marasmus'). The practice was exposed by the journalist James Greenwood as one of The Seven Curses of London (Stanley Rivers 1869, chapter 3) and is explored is this paper by Dorothy Haller.

The population of the civil district of St George-in-the-East given in the 1861 census was 48,961, of whom 31,106 (65.58%) were born locally, 4004 (8.19%) in Ireland, and 2,361 (4.83%) in 'foreign parts'. One of the three parish rate collectors, appointed in 1866, was William Cooke, who also had been paid £7.10s a year to clean the church windows, and had been the sexton (and possibly also parish clerk) at the time of the Ritualism Riots (see below). He lived at 17 Cannon Street [Road]. Sadly, in 1871 he was admitted to Colney Hatch Mental Asylum (later Friern Hospital), where he died a few years later. Perhaps as a result of an undiagnosed brain tumour, his character changed - he became violent, threatening a fellow-patient with a knife, and sang 'lewd songs' of his own composition. His son Walter Ambrose Cooke was  placed in Dr Barnardo's home in Radcliff Highway, and at the Infant Orphan Asylum in Wanstead, and went on to the Bluecoat School; he became a successful businessman who married an heiress to the Manor of Bepton (changing his surname to Fleming to gain an inheritance). A family member recalls him visiting his mother in a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce to check that she really did need a new mattress before he handed over the money to buy it. (We are grateful to William Cooke's great-granddaughter Jenny Crawford for these details.)

Linked to the new public health provisions were slum clearance powers. Under the 'Torrens Acts' (the Artisans and Labourers' Dwellings Act 1868, amended 1879 and 1882 - resulting in the curious 'short' title 'Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Act (1868) Amendment Act (1868) Amendment Act (1882)' - owners could be forced to demolish individual dwellings, though the provisions for rehousing that would have given it 'teeth' failed to get through Parliament. Under the 'Cross Acts' (the Artisans and Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1876, amended 1879 and 1882) whole areas could be compulsorily cleared. But the St George-in-the-East Vestry was among a number of local authorities that, for various reasons, made little or no use of these powers. However, see here for details of the Whitechapel Estate, a major '5% philanthropy' scheme just outside the civil parish (and now within the ecclesiastical parish), promoted by the Metropolitan Board of Works and the Peabody Trust, and here for the adjacent Katharine Buildings project in Cartwright Street, creating housing for those beyond the reach of other providers. The legislation was consolidated as Parts I and II of the 1890 Housing of the Working Classes Act.

Pictured is the famous illustration 'Over London - By Rail' by Gustave Doré in Blanchard Jerrold's London - A Pilgrimage (1872).

The age of buildings
Although the parish was geographically small (just 244 acres), by the mid-19th century it had become densely populated, and much energy went into building, or taking over from other denominations, additional churches - some of which became separate parishes. Each of them had its complement of halls, institutes, schoolrooms and other premises. Click on the links for details of each of them, and here for details of baptism and weddings registers. This 1862 map shows the churches nearest to St George's.

Anglican churches or parishes founded by St George-in-the-East

Two further parishes were later incorporated into St George's parish (and the boundary with St Peter London Dock was adjusted in 1989, transferring the St Katharine's Dock area to St Peter's):

former Anglican parishes which are part of the present-day parish

In the 17th and 18th century dissenters, and churches serving foreign nationals, were rather more active locally than the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church. By the middle of the 19th century that had changed; in answer to the question posed in 1851 Are there may Dissenters in your parish? Bryan King observed (though how accurately?) There are not many DIssenters; in fact, the people are too poor to support either Dissenters or any teachers without extraneous aid. However, there had been a huge variety of such places of worship in the parish, chronicled here:

(former) churches of other denominations

There are also pages about the history and growth of various areas of the present-day parish (some of them previously in adjacent, now merged, parishes);

At the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851* (when Dr Worthington, incumbent of Trinity Church, Gray's Inn Road, offered to conduct services, if required, in the Greek, Latin, French or Italian tongues) a booklet of service times throughout London was published by Sampson Low. It lists the services for this parish as
  • George's, St., in the East, parish church. Between 9 and 10, Cannon street. Revs. B. King, rector; W. Quekett, lecturer. 11, morning ; 3½, afternoon. Lord's supper, first Sunday in month.
  • Christ Church, Watney street, Commercial road, East. Revs. W. Quekett, incumbent; G. Mockler, curate. 11, morning; 3½, afternoon; 6½, evening. Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saints' days, 11, morning. Lord's supper, last Sunday in month — Seats to be had of Mr. C. J. Osborne, 18, Cannon street.
  • St. Mary's, Johnson street, Commercial road east. Rev. W. M'Call, incumbent. 11, morning ; 6½, evening. Thursdays, 7, evening. Lord's supper, first Sunday in month, after morning service; third ditto, 8¼, morning. There is also a service on the fourth Sunday in month, 3, afternoon. — Seats to be had after the Thursday service.
  • St. Matthew's Episcopal Chapel, Pell street, St. George street, near Wellclose square. Rev. D. Moore, minister. 11, morning; 6½, evening. Lord's supper, second Sunday in month. — Seats may be had of Mr. Butler, 42, Wellclose square. 
  • Trinity Episcopal Chapel, Cannon street road. Rev. H. Robbins, incumbent. 11, morning; 6½, evening. Wednesdays, 7, evening. Lord's supper, third Sunday in month.— Seats to be had of the chapelwarden.

[* In 1857 William Quekett, who had served energetically in this parish but was by then the Vicar of Warrington, organised a grand railway excursion from there to London to see the sights, including the Crystal Palace from the Great Exhibition, by then relocated to Sydenham - you can read about it here.] 

The first-ever nationwide census of religious attendance was conducted on Mothering Sunday 1851; here are the figures for the borough of Tower Hamlets, with some comments. In 1859 there were 467 marriages in the registration district of St George-in-the-East: 281 in the Church of England, 172 Roman Catholic, 7 in other Christian churches and 7 under the auspices of the Superintendent Registrar [i.e. civil ceremonies].

Ritualism Riots, 1859-60
The one thing many people know about St George-in-the-East is that there were riots in church over matters of ritual and ceremonial. It is an extraordinary tale, which has been extensively written about; you can find a summary here. We marked their 150th anniversary with a programme of special events, including a visit by the Archbishop of Centerbury.

Parish Life after 1860
After the riots, things calmed down. Ironically, since those days worship at St George's has been of a 'central' character, alongside our high and low church neighbours!  The pattern of Sunday worship in 1875 was as follows (see also Dickens' Directory of London for 1879). Weekday Matins at 11am was a pattern in other parishes at this period - and often well-attended. Note the inclusion of 'surplice in pulpit', in the light of the Ritualism Riots......
Services Sunday HC 8.00, 1st S and greater festivals, 11.45, M 11.00, E with churchings 3.00, E with baptism 4.15, E 7.00;
Daily, M 11.00; Festivals M 11.00, HC am. Choir, partly paid. Music, Anglican. Surplice in pulpit. Seats 1200, all free. Offertory, at each service.

See here for the evidence presented by the Rev G.H. McGill of Christ Church Watney Street (on behalf of Stepney deanery clergy) to the Select Committee on the Ecclesiastical Commission in 1862, which gives detailed facts and figures showing how hard it was to sustain parish finances with uncollectable pew rents, practically no help from local businesses, and limited or non-existent endowments in the new district churches.

 Schools
A major change in education provision came with the 1870 Education Act - see here for details of its impact locally, and of all the Board Schools that were built in the parish and their subsequent fate.
Church and community
The parish workhouse and infirmary [mentioned above], and the poor law schools, loomed large in the local consciousness. Here and here are the two parts of an 1866 newspaper article describing the experience of a 'female casual' in the workhouse. Charles Dickens, in chapter 3 of The Uncommercial Traveller (a collection of his sketches about various parts of London) describes in graphic detail a visit to Wapping Workhouse - passing en route 'Mr Baker's trap', a site of many suicides named after the local coroner; it makes grim reading, but he concludes that the workhouse was an establishment highly creditable to those parts, and thoroughly well administered by a most intelligent master. He called for an equalisation of Poor Law rates across London, finding it absurd that the poorest districts had to find the highest rates: 5s 6d in the pound in one East End parish, as against 7d in the pound in St George Hanover Square!

 By 1870, for the first time, the district was classed as one of the five poorest in London. But the St George-in-the-East Poor Law Guardians - like their counterparts in Stepney and Whitechapel - virtually ceased making 'out-relief' payments (as opposed to 'in-relief' - the workhouses). This was partly because of the growing influence of the Charity Organisation Society which pressed for more targeted assistance.

In 1883 St George's Mission House at 136 St George's Street [later renumbered 181 The Highway] was built at the cost of £5000 - a susbstantial building on three floors with acommodation above. It was demolished after 1962, when The Highway was widened. You can still see the headstone of the rear door in the wall by the church [pictured] - a separately-listed feature.

There was also a small parish room built on the north-west corner of the Rectory, at some point before 1890 [see plan of house and garden] - when was it demolished?

In 1891, at the time when St Matthew Pell Street closed, Tait Street Mission Room was built at a cost of £1050, of which £918 had been raised by the time of its opening by Princess Helene Frederica Augusta, Duchess of Albany. (Tait Street, just beyond the railway to the east of Cannon Street Road, was named after Archibald Campbell Tait, Bishop of London and later Archbishop of Canterbury, who had visited the area during cholera epidemics - though had done little to help the parish through the Ritualism Riots.) At the opening ceremony the Rector said
The room ... may be regarded as a daughter mission room to the larger one [on The Highway] ..... In the organisation of the parish it will take the place of an Arch of the Blackwall Railway where for the last two years a successful mission work has been carried on. This arch is now required for the purposes of the Railway and it has been necessary to find other quarters for the mission. The Walburgh Street Arch is not given up without regret, for there are many who have cause to remember with much thankfulness its happy success; but it must be confessed that a Railway Arch with its constant noise of trains rumbling overhead and with its cold draughtiness is not a convenient place either for services or for meetings, and there is every reason to hope that the good work will be continued with even an increased success in the Tait Street Mission Room ....

As in many parishes, formal missions were organised (though Harry Jones, Rector 1873-82, was not a fan - see why here). In the major London-wide mission of 1884-5, the missioners appointed for St George-in-the-East were the Revd W.M. Sinclair, Vicar of St Stephen Westminster; for Christ Church, The Revd Wladislaw Somerville Lach-Szyrma of St Peter Newlyn, Penzance but later of Barkingside (his Polish father had fled persecution and married into a naval family - several descendents became Anglican clergy); and for St John the Evangelist-in-the-East, The Rev E. Bickersteth, Rector of Framlingham, and the Hon and Rev R. E. Adderley, Curate of All Hallows Barking (both from famous clerical families, and experienced mission speakers). [Pictured is the Advent programme for 1878, and an 1893 mission card.]

In 1888 the British Weekly conducted a London-wide census of attendance at places of worship; unlike that of 1851, it did not include Sunday School scholars. here are the figures for the churches within the civil district of St George-in-the-East (wider than the parish). It records attendances at the parish church of 292 in the morning and 425 in the evening.

There are various contemporary accounts of parish life: In addition, Here are details of the clergy for 1860-1900. After Bryan King's departure, patronage of the benefice passed to the Bishop of London, to whom the Principal and Fellows of Brasenose College transferred most of their East End patronage in return for various country livings. In 1879 the Rector's stipend was increased by £500 a year by the voidance of a City rectory, St Alphege London Wall. The parish has never been regarded as an 'ecclesiastical prize', but the Rector's stipend was now a comfortable £800 after deductions - though from this they had to meet the expenses of assistant clergy and other costs.
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

We entered the new century with three churches - St George-in-the-East, Christ Church Watney Street and St John-in-the-East Golding Street. All were kept busy, with a full range of parish clubs, societies and organisations, and buildings to match, including St George's Mission House and the parish room behind the Rectory (see above), as well as St Mathew Pell Street (now used as a parish hall) and Tait Street Mission Room. 

This interview with R.W. Harris (Rector 1897-1903) in the Charles Booth archive [B222, pages 150-179] details many of these parish organisations, and reports on the 'invalid kitchen', and the initiative of 'St George-in-the-East Window Garden Society' - a recognition that a windox box rather than a garden was the closest many came to nature. In 1906 the winner of the annual competition was the ten-year old Harry Sleight, who lived at 1 Redmead Lane, Wapping all his life until he was moved out by Docklands redevelopment in the late 1970s. He was presented with an inscribed silver pocket watch, which he treasured all his life, as does his family - it is still in good working order (our thanks to his grandson Geoffrey for these pictures).

A high point in the time of F. St. J. Corbett (Rector 1903-19) was the visit on 14 July 1904 of Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward VII, for a flower show and sale of work (the fourth picture shows the Victorian extension to the Rectory), which provided a welcome fillip to parish finances. The circumstances of her visit are recounted in press cuttings here and an interview here.

Services at the parish church in this period were as follows:
Holy Communion every Sunday 8am & 12 noon, Greater Festivals also at 7am, Thursday 8.30am, Saints' Days 10am
Matins Sunday & Monday 11am, other days 10am          Evensong Sunday 6.30pm, Weekdays 8pm (with sermon on Wednesdays)
Holy Baptism Sunday 3.45pm & Wednesday 7.30pm    Churching of Women before or after any service             Sunday School 10am & 3pm

Tait Street Mission remained active, with a men's meeting on Sundays at 4pm and a children's service at 8.30pm, as well as weekday activities. There was a 'lady worker', Miss Emily FitzHardinge Berkeley, living at the Rectory - more details here. However, despite a full round of activities here, at the parish church and St Mathew Pell Street, the parish was seriously struggling: numerically (as the area became more Jewish in population), financially, and pastorally. See the Rector's extremely revealing confidential report of 1914 to the Bishop of Stepney (plus the published accounts for 1915), which candidly sets out the difficulties. According to Mr Corbett, the Bishop claimed not to be aware of the extent of the lay team, or of the problems they faced. And, as was still common, the Rector had to pay the curate from his own stipend; unlike his predecessor, he did not have a 'private' income.

Here is a description of life in various parts of the parish in 1911.

The First World War and its aftermath
Then came the Great War. Clergy left to serve as chaplains on the front, or, like our own Rector [pictured - more details here] remained in their parishes while serving units on the home front. They discovered (though those who had served in the East End surely knew already) how tenuous were the links of soldiers with the Christian faith: the church needed to change. (See Alan Wilkinson The Church of England and the First World War SCM 1996). Our churches struggled: particularly in the last two years of the war, numbers of baptisms and weddings fell sharply. In the post-war years various national initiatives to 're-connect' were made - for example, the National Mission of Repentance and Hope, first launched in 1916, with William Temple as its secretary. It was also the time of massive expansion of council housing, to provide 'homes fit for heroes' in new outer suburbs; the population became more mobile. And it was a time when the way the Church of England conducted its business changed, with the introduction of what we now call synodical government: see here for more details.

When J.C. Pringle was appointed Rector in 1919, although the range of clubs and activities (particularly for girls) continued, with new ones for children and adults added in the next few years, congregational numbers remained low - see here for more details. The bishop was not prepared to license a curate to the parish; instead, a succession of licensed women workers was appointed. Repairs to the church, including the installation of electric lighting (partly funded by the sale by faculty of some historic church plate), delayed the installation of a war memorial until 1924 - see here for details of the memorial, and the subsequent keeping of Armisticetide. There is more about Pringle's ministry here, and his connections with the Charity Organisation Society);  and here are some of his forthright, and often startling, opinions from the parish magazine.

Pringle's successor in 1925 was C.J. Beresford, who as Warden of the SPCK College in Commerical Road was already well-known in the parish: had frequently provided 'cover' here during Pringle's absences, both for the main Sunday services and for baptisms. He had a wide circle of former students who assisted in the parish. Unlike Pringle, he was allowed a curate, as well as a parish worker. He was also a musician - the founder of the Stepney Orpheus Choir: see here for details of the musical life of the parish, and arrangements for the bicentenary in 1929. There is more on Beresford's life and ministry here. 

Some further extracts from the parish magazine 1923-34 can be found here:
The pattern of services in the 1920s and 30s remained 'central' in tradition, with various small changes made over the period:
Holy Communion every Sunday 8am, & 12 noon on all [later third only] Sundays; choral at 11.30am following shortened Mattins on the first Sunday;
Tuesdays and Holy Days 7am, Thursdays 8am
Holy Baptism Sunday 4pm & Wednesday 7.30pm     Churching of Women before or after any service  
Matins Sunday 11am, most weekdays 8am  Evensong Sunday 6.30pm, Wednesday 8pm [with address], most other weekdays 6pm
Sunday School 3pm [with the introduction of a Children's Service on the fourth Sunday]

See this page for the involvement of Earl Winterton MP and his wife in parish affairs during the inter-war years. He was a local landowner and employer, and built some 'philanthropic housing' in the parish. But slum housing remained the norm, with big profits for absentee landlords.

Pictured left are Miss E K Palmer and Mr J Day, churchwardens for 1937. Miss Palmer had been Superintendent of the Sunday School for many years, and a key figure in the parish. Female wardens were not yet common in the Church of England - but we were becoming a progressive parish! Their churchwardens' staves remain in use.

Sydney Maddocks wrote wistfully in 1933 
Over the parish in our days hangs an atmosphere of depression that things should be as they are, which is broken only for some rare moments, such as when the mean streets have a certain wistfulness in the softening grey haze of a late autumnal afternoon. Then the lofty tower of St. George’s Church, which has seen two centuries of life’s vicissitudes, hushes red in the kindly glow of the sun in the west, telling worker and the workless of the departure of another day.  (Co-Partnership Herald, vol.2, no.24)

Politics became more volatile throughout the period, with widespread unemployment in the 1920s leading to the General Strike [pictured above is a struggling local family in this period], and the rise of both communism and fascism, resulting in the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 - see here for more details.

The Second World War - Blitz and Rebuilding
When the Second World War began, clergy were again in short supply, and six local parishes were grouped together; St John's was closed. On 16 April 1941 Christ Church and its vicarage were destroyed by a landmine, and St George's was gutted the next month. Writing of the bombing of the parish, the Communist councillor (and MP from 1945) Phil Piratin said We saw them coming over against the bright blue sky. A policeman said 'better get in'. Then the bombs began to drop.  All remaining clergy, led by Fr John Groser from Christ Church, moved to the Rectory, where services were also held until they moved into the Mission House the following year. Nora Neal also joined the team as a licensed lay worker during the war years. From 1942 the crypt was used (by faculty) as an air-raid shelter. Pictured is a map of the bombing across London, and a local aerial view from 1960. See here for a peace party in Walburgh Street.

In December 1943 a prefab within the shell of the church, 'St George-in-the-Ruins' became the parish's home for the next seventeen years. This leaflet circulated at the end of the War explains the pastoral re-organisation of the parish, and the pattern of worship in what is optimistically described as the charming little temporary church now built inside the roofless walls of the old church. By contrast, Prebendary Arthur Royall, a chronicler of East London Church life, comments  I worshipped there one Sunday morning in the late 1940's and have vague memories of what appeared, from the outside, to be a large shabby wooden shed.

In 1945 an Anglican Franciscan presence was established at 84 Cable Street [where Noble Court now stands]; you can read more here about their work, and how this became the starting-point of Fr Ken Leech's commitment to the East End.

In 1960, now with Fr Alex Solomon as Rector, the congregation moved out of the prefab for the new church to be constructed, and for 3¾ years they worshipped in the 'Upper Room' of the old mission hall pictured left in 1960]. 686 coffins were moved out of the crypt and reburied at Brookwood Cemetery [listed left]. The detailed story of the whole process is told here by Fr Solomon, and the new church is described in detail here; see also a 1959 architectural assessment [right]. The 1963 sketch by Paul Joyce shows the remains of building (including the Mission Hall) during the period of reconstruction.

The church was rededicated on 26 April 1964 by the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Dr Robert Stopford, before a congregation of 450. In his address he said - perhaps somewhat over-simplifying the issues -The Christian knows that no building can really be worthy to be the house of God ... Whether it be a little church in a village or a great and glorious cathedral the purpose is the same - to express our reverence of God. Two-and-a-half centuries ago an architect of genius built three great churches in East London - churches which I suspect even in the day in which they were built were criticized as being too big and too elaborate. But Hawksmoor was building for the glory of God. This church served the worship of God for two-and-a-half centuries until the war destroyed it, and now we thank God it has been restored.

The Rectory was located in the church, on two floors, and the parsonage house became 'The Old Rectory', let out to various tenants. (It has now been restored to its original use.) Here and here are details of some events in the new crypt hall, and in and around the church.

Around this time the Brotherhood of Prayer and Action established a house in Cable Street and participated in parish life. The Brotherhood was a small lay community of working men, single and married, founded in 1960 and centred on St George's House Wolverhampton with branches elsewhere. They offered a 'ministry of concern', sharing their homes with those in need of hospitality. Some of them worked with homless meths drinkers at St Botolph's crypt. When on church business, they wore a cassock with a green girdle, and at other times their 'Chi-Rho' brotherhood emblem. One of their members designed and made the metal corona at the west end of the church. (See further Peter Anson The Call of the Cloister (SPCK 1964) p219.)

In 1971 St George's took on responsibility for St Paul Dock Street (which had previously incorporated St Mark Whitechapel when this closed in 1925); worship continued there until 1990, when the parish name changed from 'St George-in-the-East with Christ Church and St John' to 'St George-in-the-East with St Paul'. With all our daughter churches gone (except for St Mary Cable Street and St Peter London Docks, which remained as separate parishes) we had come full circle.

Details of the clergy who served the parish during the 20th century and beyond are here. See here for a 1971 letter sent to the parish by Gonville ffrench-Beytagh, Dean of Johannesberg convicted for offences against the apartheid regime in South Africa.
INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

A changing parish
The parish, like the church, has been massively rebuilt, and social change continues apace. [Panorama looking north from the tower, and night sky]

Alongside former Jewish, Maltese, north African and European neighbours we now share the area with Bengalis, mostly from the Sylhet region, who make up the majority population. Here are some details of local mosques and Islamic centres.

'The King's Highway' - various schemes of the 80's, 90's and 00's
There are three separate Anglican parishes in close proximity along or close The Highway - ourselves, St Paul Shadwell and St Mary Cable Street - as well as St Peter London Docks a few hundred yards down Wapping Lane.  (The last two were founded from St George-in-the-East.) In addition, as explained above, St George's had taken on responsibility for St Paul Dock Street.

The viability, staffing and future use of these churches was extensively considered in the 1980s, at which time we had no resident priest, but shared Julian Scharf with St Paul Shadwell (from 1979-86); see here for details of the major Auschwitz exhibition of 1983 held in the crypt during in his time.The Stepney Area Pastoral Committee conducted a review of the pastoral provision for all the parishes south of the Commercial Road. As required under the 1983 Pastoral Measure when re-organisation is in prospect, a report from the Council for the Care of Churches [now Church Buildings Council], a report was made on the architectural and aesthetic significance of St George's (PM 1298 - this and many other documents from this period are held at the Church of England Record Centre in Bermondsey).  Unsurprisingly, this concluded that St George's is a building of international significance, adding that the 1960s interventions were a worthy example of the 'solutions' of that period.

In late 1985 the Committee produced a report which recommended declaring St George-in-the-East redundant and developing it for housing, shifting worship elsewhere: to St Paul Shadwell (also a listed building, but then in poor condition), St Paul Dock Street (undistinguished, and also in poor condition), or St Mary Cable Street (with the idea that this church, of lesser architectural significance and likely to require major work in the future, might be rebuilt); they also mooted building a new multi-purpose church in the area of Wellclose Square, or on the former site of St John Golding Street. See here for the text of the report and  parish and other responses.  In the event, a further consultation was held, and a working party set up, with a mixture of national experts and members of the parish, and chaired by Peter Burman, the Secretary of the Council for the Care of Churches - a sign of the importance of the building. This concluded that worship should continue at St George's, alongside the development of some major alternative use, for which various proposals were discussed, including In 1988 a resident incumbent, Gillean Craig, was once again appointed, and set about rebuilding parish life. In due course, through his musical contacts the Guildhall Ensemble, the postgraduate arm of the Performance and Skills Department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, working to promote music in schools, hospitals, prisons and the local community, made its base in the crypt ten years later. In 1989 ambitious plans by architect Peter Renwick of Stanton Williams were prepared which would have adapted the church to make a permanent home for the Ensemble, leaving the 1960s worship space intact but creating a glazed atrium in the courtyard to let light into the crypt and provide public rooms, rehearsal space and galleries on four levels. In 1991 a public appeal for £4m was launched by the Bishop of Stepney and Lord Palumbo for a St George-in-the-East Centre - more about the scheme and the appeal here. But, despite a visit from Prince Charles [pictured inspecting a warden's stave], the project failed to attract sufficient financial support, and ended in frustration.

Throughout the decade both parish and diocese worked on a sustainable future for the church and parish. The parish set up St George-in-the-East Trust to promote development proposals, with some 'seedcorn' funding and a development worker (Melanie Hall, replaced in 2001 when she became an ordination candidate by Thrisa Haldar as project co-ordinator and fundraiser). A six-month Task Group, with church, local community and borough representatives, met in the first half of 1999 to clarify the vision, and was succeeded by a Development Committee. When Gillean Craig left St George's in 2002 - and St Paul Shadwell was also vacant - a further period of questioning followed, about future staffing in relation to the deanery as a whole, and about best use of the various parish buildings, some of them very large: our church, crypt, Rectory and Church House, Wellclose Square; St Paul's Church, crypt (which at that time housed a nursery school - since relocated here - see below), Institute and Rectory; and St Mary's church and hall (with a variety of community uses). The Bishop of London, who had previously been Bishop of Stepney, so knew the area well, made it clear that he was opposed to church closure - retreat is simply not an option - and stressed that each congregation should continue, maintaining their distinctive traditions. They are diverse, both liturgically and in relation to  in relation to women priests and bishops (which we strongly support); working together depends on good relationships!

The area, said Bishop Richard, has a distinguished history of Christian service to the 'old' East End, and remains in touch with the dwindling but precious remnant of that old world; but the new facts are the rise of Islam and the embourgisement of the Thames littoral.  The Highway - connecting the City with Docklands, and encompassing the new immigrant communities as well as the new wealth - symbolises this (though for all its symbolic significance it is somewhat off the beaten track - hence the failure of Tobacco Dock, opposite the church, as a schopping centre).

A King's Highway working group was set up, and detailed feasibility studies done of all the available buildings. From this emerged proposals for creating a 'Mission Action Zone' (MAZ), bringing together these three parishes - plus St Peter London Dock and St Dunstan Stepney which are also part of the local 'cluster' of churches - and the Royal Foundation of St Katharine. A great deal of energy was put into these discussions. In the event, and frustratingly, the MAZ also led nowhere. (Ironically, 41 years previously Fr Ken Leech, at that stage an ordinand who had worked in the area for four years, proposed a scheme of collaborative working in 'West Stepney' similar to the one envisaged for the MAZ, which you can read here.)

Instead, in 2004 the bishop invited Holy Trinity Brompton to plant a new congregation (made up of HTB members from across East London) at St Paul Shadwell; this began in January 2005, after work on the church.

 A new focus emerged. The area provides an ideal context for ministerial education, for clergy, Readers (Licensed Lay Ministers - LLMs) and others, and the North Thames Ministerial Training Course (NTMTC), in which London and Chelmsford dioceses are partners, needed a new home. The bishop's vision was for a 'Christian University of the Highway', encompassing local parishes and also the Royal Foundation of St Katharine which could have provided residential accommodation for course weekends - though in the event did not. The course is validated by Middlesex University, though the bishop hoped it might also link with the 'archetypal' church foundation of King's College London and its networks.

Offices for NTMTC were created by the diocese in the eastern end of the crypt at St George's in 2005, under a 25-year licence. In 2006 Green Gables Montessori Nursery School moved from the crypt at St Paul's to the western end of the crypt at St George's, the conversion work funded by the sale of Church House, Wellclose Square to the diocese. (This remains boarded and undeveloped, following the eviction of a community artists' squat, but we hope the diocese will soon fine new tenants.) Maxwell Hutchinson Studios were the architects, working in close collaboration with the parish; Maxwell Hutchinson [pictured] is a well-known broadcaster, writer and visiting professor, and a friend of St George's, who preached here at an anniversary service.

NTMTC also now uses its dedicated space, plus the church and part of the nursery school, for Tuesday evening teaching sessions - beginning with a shared meal in the crypt and worship in church.  From 2010, LLM candidates from the Stepney episcopal area, and other areas of London diocese, are based here for part of their training. But the rise of the College of St Mellitus, bringing together other training providers, plus financial pressures on ordination training, will end their links with the church in 2012, although they remain committed to providing training opportunities in East London.

Church and Rectory
As explained above, the crypt now houses the North Thames Ministerial Training Course and Green Gables Montessori Nursery. We are looking hard at how we should best use the rest of our rather complicated building to further the mission of the church and serve our community, responding to the ever-changing scene. We now have two good meeting rooms, each with access to kitchen and toilet facilities, available for a variety of uses.

When Gillean Graig was Rector, he restored the Rectory, with English Heritage funding. Victorian additions were removed and it became once more the finest classical parsonage house in London. In the basement flat lived Edith Wyeth (pictured), whose home for nearly all her life was around the church site (she was baptized here in 1924); she and her husband were the churchwardens when the new church was consecrated. In recognition of her lifelong service to the parish, the Bishop of London made her a member of the Order of St Mellitus in 2007. St Mellitus (d.624) was the first Bishop of London, and third Archbishop of Canterbury. Canon Michael Saward, a member of our congregation, has written this hymn about him, originally sung at St Paul's Cathedral where he was on the staff. Edith stood down as warden in 2009 after over 50 years of service, but remained closely involved in all aspects of parish life right up to her death, at the age of 87, in March 2011. She maintained contact with an astonishing number of people from the past, but was also full of hopes and dreams for the future. We pray that her own future with the God whom she served so faithfully all her life will bring her peace and joy! See the address at her funeral here.

 So a good text for us to take with us into God's future for the parish is Matthew 13.52 (REB):
Jesus said, When a teacher of the law has become a learner in the kingdom of Heaven,
he is like a householder who can produce from his store things new and old.


Homepage | About Us | Services & Events | Church & Churchyard | History
Newsletters & Sermons | Contacts, Links & Registers | Giving | Picture Gallery | Site Map