St Clement Eastcheap Church

The present church is the third on the site. Little is known of the first church, dedicated to St Clement, Bishop of Rome, in AD100. What is known is that Clements Lane, in which the present church stands, was so named at the beginning of the 13th century, making it clear that the church gave the name to the lane rather than the reverse.

The present building was erected by Sir Christopher Wren in the years 1683-87 (the second church having been destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666, which broke out nearby at the point now commemorated by the nearby Monument). The only remaining evidence of the second church is the foundation of the tower and the line of the wall that now constitutes the wall of the south aisle.

The interior represents an example of Wren's peculiar genius. Had he built the roof at the level of the cornice, the church might easily have been the equivalent of a banqueting hall, but in lifting his roof, he gave to this small building a richness and elevation that make effective decoration possible.

The interior today in the detail of its appointments bears little relation to its condition before 1872. In that year, fearful things were done to the church: the reredos was split into three parts and placed on three separate walls, which destroyed the coherence and the beauty of the structure. Also, the west gallery was taken away and the organ was removed from its proper position there to the south aisle.

However, in 1933 Sir James Ninian Comper, Britain's foremost ecclesiastical architect, was called in. He reassembled the reredos, and decorated it in gold, colour and gesso-work. The four old panels were replaced and show the figures of St Clement and St Martin in the centre, while the outside panels portray St Gabriel and the Virgin Mary. The effect of this decoration is one of rare loveliness and magnificence, and is a striking example of modern art on the lines of the old Gothic craftsmen.

In 1936 the organ was restored to its original position at the west end. The case work dates from 1695 and nearly all the original pipe-work, by Renatus Harris, has been preserved and incorporated in the enlarged modern version as we see it today. It is acknowledged that within its range and compass and in its setting it stands supreme.

On September 9, 1940, blasts from bombs dropped nearby fractured every window in the church save one, and did considerable damage to the furniture. Fortunately, the organ had been shored up as a precaution, otherwise it would have been hurled into the church and no genius could have restored it. As it was, the back was blown in. The reredos was damaged, candlesticks were broken, the vestry floor subsided and much other defacement occurred.

The damage could have been worse, but it was sufficiently serious to raise grave problems to a poor and virtually unendowed church in the City of London. It was thought that in view of the great destruction in the city it would be right to strip St Clements of many of its treasures and place them in store so that in the event of the building being destroyed, something of its beauty would be preserved for some other church. Mercifully, the church survived and with the restoration of the reredos, redecoration of the building inside and out and a complete survey of the fabric the third stage of restoration had been accomplished by 1950.

The painted glass in the windows prior to the destruction has not been replaced. Such as remains is indicative of some of the war wounds. This may be a good thing, for it is certain that Wren never contemplated coloured glass in the windows, and what was in position before 1940 was placed there in 1872.

St Clement (the original "Oranges and Lemons" church) today has probably the smallest parish in the City of London, comprising only three buildings.

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Our thanks to the Rev Mark Kiddle for permission to use this material