Excavations at the site of present St.…

1724 CE

Excavations at the site of present St. Martin-in-the-Fields in 2006 will lead to the discovery of a grave dated about 410.

The site is outside the city limits of Roman London (as was the usual Roman practice for burials) but is particularly interesting for being so far outside, and this is leading to a reappraisal of Westminster's importance at that time.

The burial is thought by some to mark a Christian center of that time (possibly reusing the site or building of a pagan temple).

The earliest extant reference to the church is from 1222, with a dispute between the Abbot of Westminster and the Bishop of London as to who had control over it.

The church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, which had been rebuilt by Henry VIII in 1542, was by the reign of James I, becoming inadequate for the congregation, due to the great increase in population in the area.

The king in 1606 had granted an acre of ground on the west side of St. Martin's Lane for a new churchyard, and the church had been enlarged.

Galleries had been added later in the seventeenth century, and the creation of the new parishes of St. Anne, Soho, and St. James, Piccadilly, and the opening of a chapel in Oxenden Street had relieved some of the pressure on space.

A survey of 1710 had found that the walls and roof were in a state of decay.

A act had been passed in 1720 for the rebuilding of the church allowing for a sum of up to twenty-two thousand pounds, to be raised by a rate on the parishioners.

A temporary church had been erected partly on the churchyard and partly on ground in Lancaster Court.

Advertisements had been placed in the newspapers that bodies and monuments of those buried in the church or churchyard could be taken away for reinterment by relatives.

The rebuilding commissioners had selected James Gibbs to design the new church.

His first suggestion was for a church with a circular nave and a domed ceiling; this was considered too expensive, and Gibbs then produced a simpler rectilinear plan, which was accepted.

The foundation stone had been laid on March 19, 1722, and the last stone of the spire placed in position in December 1724.

The total cost is thirty-three thousand six hundred and sixty-one pounds including the architect's fees.

Gibbs's mature style represents a highly proficient synthesis of both Baroque and Palladian sources.

hi best known work, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, with its lofty steeple and classical temple front, clearly demonstrates the intermingling of Italian and English influences.

Though criticized in its time—the French admire the portico and despise the steeple—St. Martin's becomes the archetype of countless British and American churches.

The west front of the St. Martin’s has a portico with a pediment supported by a giant order of Corinthian columns, six wide.

The order is continued around the church by pilasters.

In designing the church, Gibbs had been influenced by the works of Christopher Wren, but had departed from Wren’s practice in his integration of the tower into the church.

Rather than considering it as an adjunct to the main body of the building, he has constructed it within its west wall, so that it rises above the roof, immediately behind the portico, an arrangement previously used by John James at St. George, Hanover Square (1712–24), though James’ steeple is much less ambitious.

The spire of St. Martin’s rises one hundred and ninety-two feet above the level of the church floor.

The church is rectangular in plan, with the five-bay nave divided from the aisles by arcades of Corinthian columns.

There are galleries over both aisles and at the west end.

The nave ceiling is a flattened barrel vault, divided into panels by ribs.

The panels are decorated with cherubs, clouds, shells, and scroll work, by Giuseppe Artari and Bagutti.

Because of its prominent position, St. Martin-in-the-Fields is today one of the most famous non-cathedral churches in London.