St Stephen Walbrook Church – Prototype for that famous dome

Last week in a rather cool and stormy London, I arrived early for an appointment as I often do. This time I was attending a function at Mansion House so I decided to visit the neighbouring old Church, St Stephen Walbrook.

I’m sure you’ll agree St Stephen is a fine name for a church, particularly this one which is I think unique amongst the many old churches in the City of London.

The world is dotted by some incredible domes. One doesn’t have to live near one or even be of the same faith to admire them. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, The Taj Mahal in India, Hagia Sophia in modern day Istanbul and St Peters in the Vatican. Any one of which would have its claim to being the most beautiful, picturesque etc etc building. London of course completes the nominees with the wondrous St Pauls Cathedral whose dome is fractionally smaller than that in the Vatican as Sir Christopher Wren wanted to be respectful to The Pope, despite its non-Catholic faith.

Tucked away about 10 minutes walk from St Pauls is the wonderful little St Stephen Walbrook church whose dome is often said to have been the prototype or test for its larger and more famous neighbour at St Pauls Cathedral.

Two thousand years ago the Roman temple of Mithras stood on the bank of the River Walbrook which ran into the Thames. It still does but under the street as is clear by the plethora of manhole covers and drains on what is a relatively quiet backwater of London.

The first church here was likely built on the foundations of the Roman temple, possibly from around 700AD.

By 1428 this church and its graveyard were too small for the parish, and licences were obtained to build a larger church on higher ground some twenty meters to the east, the ground having risen about six meters; and Walbrook, no longer a stream, was now a street. The land, 208½ feet by 66 feet, was given by Robert Chicheley, a member of The Worshipful Company of Grocers. The building, of flint and rubble with stone dressings, had a tower at the west and a cloister on the north. It was one of a hundred churches in the square mile of the City of London.

Sadly as with so much of this part of London, it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London which did at least give us this fantastic and much overlooked old building.

Constructed between 1672 and 1679 to a design by Sir Christopher Wren, at a cost of £7,692.^[It is rectangular in plan, with a dome and an attached north west tower. Entry to the church is up a flight of sixteen steps, enclosed in a porch attached to the west front. Sir Christopher Wren also designed a porch for the north side of the church. This was never built, but there once was a north door, which was bricked up in 1685, as it let in the offensive smells from the slaughterhouses in the neighbouring Stocks Market (incidentally where Mansion House stands today. The walls, tower and internal columns are made of stone, but the dome is of timber and plaster with an external covering of copper.

The 63 feet (19 m) high dome is based on Wren’s original design for St Paul’s, and is centred over a square of twelve columns in the Corinthian style. 

From the outside it rather reminds me of a Middle-Eastern church, perhaps even a mosque. It was most likely inspired by some of the great Byzantine churches that can still be found in Turkey and neighbouring countries.

St Stephen Walbrook has even been stated as being one of the ten most important buildings in England which makes it doubly devastating that it was struck and terribly damaged in The Blitz on an air raid that also killed 160 people.

The church dome was damaged and most of the buildings around the church were badly damaged or destroyed.

Thankfully it was amongst the churches that were rebuilt after WW2.

I’ve been in before a few times but not as often as I go in others. Primarily as it is right next to Bank and Mansion House so normally I am on mid-tour rather than with time to spare at the beginning and end. This time I had 40 minutes to savour the experience.

It is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever been in. Simple but wonderfully elegant. Here are a few photos which I hope convey what a wonderful church this is.

I hope you enjoyed my visit 🙂