Well, if there was an ‘Old Church’ it follows there is a ‘New Church’. St Pancras New Church was completed in 1822, ‘..the exterior adapted from Greek models..’, i.e. a 19C Greek temple. It was built on the south side of the New Road (the Euston Road), facing Euston Square.
The church was built to serve the new population of Bloomsbury. The architects were William Inwood and his son, and at a cost of £76,680 it was the most expensive church since St Paul’s Cathedral. The church was designed to seat 2,500 and the size and expense reflect, I suggest, the affluent new population in the area.
The Inwoods were inspired by two Greek temples: the Erechtheion and the Tower of the Winds (the inspiration for the tower). This great post includes the photo below and explains the history of the Erechtheion and how the Ionic order of the columns has been copied. In St Pancras the architects seem to have attempted to reproduce the entire temple – columns, layout, and the caryatides.
Look at the detail on the building, and on the amazing red doors – does anyone know why the doors are red?
The Tower of the Winds was an octagonal clock tower in Athens, and used as the model for the church spire.
And in the garden, the Archangel Michael, by Emily Young, in remembrance of those killed by a bomb on 7 July 2005
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Excellent post on the Church, with photographs
The Snail of Happiness
I am loving all these posts… thank you
Candy Blackham
You have no idea how pleased this makes me! I have two more posts on Squares which are growing and which I hope to finish before Christmas, then I may have to take a break, in Suffolk, and start thinking about chocolate cakes!