St Mary Woolnoth – A Fine Example Of Monumental Church Architecture

St Mary Woolnoth was established to be “a fine example of monumental church architecture…which may be considered one of the best of Hawksoor’s efforts. It is in many respects unique in treatment and is certainly one which should be preserved”. Hawksmoor has used mathematical features in his composition, which allows him to “mix a remarkably rigorous geometry with a Baroque licence worthy of seventeenth-century Rome”. The dramatic usage of Hawksmoor's masses and conflicting textures offers his work a powerful sculptural property of quality. Due to the construction of Hawksmoor’s church, the area is known to be ‘the noblest street corner in London’.

St Mary Woolnoth is dominated by the two towers on the front which are supported by columns of the Corinthian order, these are used throughout the chapel. The twin-towered exterior does not allow to show the magnificent, bright interior. However, the highly placed semi-circular window allows the interior to be lit on all four sides. An extremely ornamented altar-piece dominates the interior of the church as it was "improved" by Butterfield.

The exterior of St Mary Woolnoth is a representative of Hawksmoor architectural style. The lower ground of the construction is extremely heavily rusticated, its impact has been heightened by the uncommon three based columns on each corner, which are too rusticated. Rustication is a term that is used in classical architecture to describe a range of masonry practices that shows a quality that contrast in texture with a smooth finished, square blocked brickwork are called ashlar. The surface of every separate masonry block is cut back near the ends of the corners to create its mass and arrangement very clear to the building. Furthermore, the keystones above the arched entrance have become rusticated, due to the continuance of rustication, it has also led into the semi window above it. The difference from the ground floor is that the first floor is completely modest and simple, there are only three small square windows in the centre. On top, there’s a tower placed, with paired modern composite columns to both sides, and two columns bordering a window that lies in the centre, alongside plain walls amongst them. The arrangement comes to a high point that has two small rectangle towers, with oversized railings resting on a solid entablature.

St Mary Woolnoth has broad twin towers, a central, arches and the remarkable parallel banding, which Hawksmoor used a rustication technique. The use of the arch to define the first stage of the facade; the horizontal banding, white Portland stone in the case of Hawksmoor’s building, polychromatic in the case of Stirling’s; and, more abstractly, the way that neither facade diminishes in scale as they get higher – if anything both seem to get wider. As one of a group of buildings that address the Bank interchange – quite aside from being a church by Hawksmoor – St Mary Woolnoth had, of course, not escaped Stirling’s attention. The north façade has three extremely hefty round headed structures which are heavily rusticated. Inside the frames, black niches frames by columns set diagonally. They convey a conventional entablature arched boldly back into the wall, an idea as personal as some in the Italian baroque. The heavy blockish windowsills on big supports exaggerate the sensation of great strength. The remarkably delicate central balustrade on top of the corbelled cornice, which emphasises the width of the clerestory which lies behind it. The absenteeism of windows insulates the internal room from the noise of Lombard street. The astonishing and surprising difference amongst this and fenestrated five-bay south elevation is to be described by the point that, formerly before the production of developing King William Street, the wall on the south could only be perceived in a closer foreshortening, from a tight and hence quieter passageway. The lower half is currently covered by a single level past Underground station by Sidney R.J. Smith, 1897-8. This includes a Hawksmoor technique of a rusticated focus, disappointed by mediocre flanking statistics in low relief. Within the arch, one amongst Hawksmoor’s bays could also be reviewed to full height; rusticated lowest aperture like those on the north, then a tall round-headed window high up (in this bay only also blind).

Also hidden from the exterior is Hawksmoor's very little se vestry with its Venetian window opening. The west exterior develops a prominent centre lined with the consistent rustication, an extremely inventive and entirely effective motif. During Butterfield’s restoration (1875-6) he added Semi-circular steps to the front entrance, which lead to a curved headed entrance in a rusticated forte. There is a semi-circular window which is positioned above the lights in the ringing chamber. ‘The tower rising above this is in the plan much broader than it is deep.’ Furthermore, there is an extensive base with three entirely unmoulded square window openings. The fundamental storey overhead is treated in three bays with additional modern composite columns, this is to give an impression of two west towers that have merged from above. Undeniably the top of the façade is separated into two square towers. ‘The effect is of powerful forces firmly held in check.’

The lower segment of the façade has questioning resemblances with the works of Vanbrugh Seaton Delaval. Low doorways flanking the tower are for external access to the galleries, as stipulated by the fifty church commissioners. . .. about the station. The interior (renovated by Butterfield) is significantly more monumental than the external façade, which would make one presume: completely centralized, with a square high space carried by four groups of three giant Corinthian angle columns. Above the traditional entablature, the clerestory devours a great arched window opening. Kerry Downes summaries its source from a previous proposal by Hawksmoor, with a consist spaced out columns and a quadrilateral clerestory light. Square ambulatory, previously with galleries extended to the entrance on the west side. Refurbished in moderate white and cream 1996. The carpentry is as unique as its surroundings, nevertheless not essentially to Hawksmoor’s intentions. Gallery fronts are set back touching the walls by Butterfield, amongst an immense openwork’s brackets, on odd outward tapering piers (actually the former square columns cut in half). Unexpectedly its spacious on the inside, the plan is organised into two squares. A large outer square that has a smaller square inside, this is supported by three columns on each end of the four corners. The galleries that were removed in the 19th century is disturbing, as it has an effect on the proportions.

The ground floor plan is an import technical drawing as it shows the scaled drawing of the building viewed from above. It also includes measurements, furniture and other necessary information that has a purpose to the plan. In Figure 4 you can see that the stairs are positioned on the front corners, this is very convenient as there is an easy access to the galleries on top.

The altar is arranged right at the back, in the middle of the building, it’s also set back pushing the walls out. The benches are placed in-between the square that is created by three columns on four corners. The Gallery plan is very useful, as it shows how the Galleries are positioned in-between the main outer square and the inner square formed by the columns. The interior of St Mary Woolnoth is relatively different to the other churches by Hawksmoor, having an opened square in a plan is likely grounded on Vitruvius’ influential explanation of the Egyptian Hall. Despite all these considerable alterations by William Butterfield, stepping into the cathedral today, it’s still hard not be surprised by the big contrast. The obscure, heavy exterior gives way to a stupendously bright central interior, four vast windows allow the room to be lit from above but are discreet from the exterior. ‘The interior is a cube within a cube’, it has proportions that have embraced the impression that the structure is much larger inside than it seems from the road outside. Light beams through the semi-circular window openings on all four sides, brightening the square floor interior that is reinforced at the edges by large white Corinthian columns. Inside this square are rows of benches that are in an orderly fashion. A golden ceremonial canopy of stone, a small-scale of Bernini's at St. Peter's, elegances the altar. Panels across the entrance walls honour past congregations, counting the antislavery supporters William Wilberforce and John Newton.

The cathedral's and its architect's, associations are to rejuvenation and clarify essences to crowd out any Gothic phantasms. St Mary Woolnoth has been claimed to be an ‘exquisite example’ of what people call the ‘Christian Style’, whereas its ‘interior, in some respects, is unrivalled by most of those by Sir Christopher Wren’. St Mary Woolnoth ‘has such exquisite beauties that it is irksome to dwell on its few and trifling faults’. Other spectators stayed less optimistic, critics were fast to point out that St Mary Woolnoth was ‘selected not so much as a specimen of its fine design, but as an example of the peculiar style of its architect, and characteristic of the taste of the age in which it was erected’. St Mary’s reputation was better than Hawksmoor’s other cathedral projects, it had ‘always been celebrated for its beauty, even during the years of Hawksmoor’s eclipse’. In this case, St Mary Woolnoth had forever been Hawksmoors most prominent building.

The interior is well thought out, every detail has a purpose, for example, the Corinthians were used as they are by far the most popular order. In Roman architecture, columns were used not only as a functional bearing element but also for decoration. Similarly, in this building the columns are also used to structurally support the building, and for internal ornament. The windows used, allow maximum light to enter, this is an important feature as the building is a chapel and light plays a big role. Moreover, the section shows how the twin towers are positioned on the front of the building. Figure 6 shows a section looking east, here you can see the window section and the upper galleries. On the ground floor, you are able to see how the layout of the room is, for example, the altar is centred in the middle of the building in-between the columns. Having both sections together you can see that the building is an asymmetrical cube, the proportion and dimensions are equal as well as internal look. It is an exceptional and impressive construction nestled in London's momentous financial region. It is easy to understand why this astonishing cathedral is grade 1 listed.

It is a classical English Baroque style that has a Portland stone façade exterior dominated by two twin turrets that are reinforced on Corinthian columns. The surprising moment for the developed project came when an Architect, Scott Whitby, took his first steps inside St Mary Woolnoth, ‘’I walked back into that space and it hit me like a freight train. I had been in most of the Wren churches and some of the medieval ones . . . but when you walk through the door at Bank and you go into the nave of St Mary Woolnoth, there’s something so spiritual . . . in how the light hits you . . . you feel protected from the noise and the sound of the city. The space becomes almost a courtyard within the city.’’

On the contrary, St Mary Woolnoth was given a rather bitter evaluation, ‘Here, one cannot refrain from referring to this mass of piled up plagiarism, put together by a pupil of Wren; whose training never was able to refine his native coarseness, that some, in their criticism of this composition, have glorified by the name of boldness: yet the gulf between this and Wren’s work is too broad to need critical measurement. I mention it, only because it has been thought by some worthy of the praise it has received by archaeologists incapable of discriminating between what is fine and what is eccentric, – a praise likely to depreciate, while it lasts, all good work of this time.’

The description is clearly biased; to this critics point of view, the performance of Christopher Wren’s ‘pupil’ was unconsciously substandard to that of their professor. This was also the fact when critics misinterpreted the work of the student for that of the professor. The fact that St Mary Woolnoth church is still standing to this present day, is the indication that these endeavours to remove and deconstruct it, has eventually been unsuccessful. It is intriguing to hear that associates of both Houses dispute so passionately for the cathedral's existence, for both its historic and community morals, also to some extent its architectonic merits. In the end, they were actually many eras ahead of an architectural view.

Conclusively, the resolution to cathedral and station’s coexistence was the one stated by Earl of Morley. -look into it. A lift channel was introduced beneath the cathedral and a ticket hall developed in what had previously been the vault. The extremely complicated work of supporting and digging under the cathedral was supervised by the skilled engineers. Steel beams were incorporated beneath the building of the cathedral; they can genuinely be seen bulging over the flooring close to the edge walls. The items in the vault were re-located and transported to the City of London Graveyard in northeast London. Consequently, in a way that lastly returned to the original proposals of Wren and Vanbrugh that interments should never happen in or nearby the cathedrals, but in big cemeteries on the border of the town. To this current date, the lifts at Bank Station to the Northern Line platforms, still go directly below St Mary Woolnoth cathedral and the basement of the vault can still be seen from inside the lift channel. After a considerable amount of time, determination and capital were given just to let St Mary’s and Bank Station to coexist, it should have been a realistic indication to assume that the cathedral was now protected from demolishment.

On the other hand, it was no more than twenty years after that the beginning of Bank Station and St Mary Woolnoth was indeed up for demolishment again, and yet again as in the 1860s, the Cathedral consultants were behind it. Nevertheless, as we will see, the desires had already stimulated up in the 1890s and had focused devotion concerning Hawksmoor’s masterwork, guaranteeing that the proposals were encountered with direct and intensive disagreement.

To conclude, St Mary Woolnoth is Hawksmoor's only church that is situated in the City of Greater London. The church diverges from Hawksmoor's other cathedrals, as the plan and interior structure has been explicitly compacted, although it still has been designed by the tension between cross-axes. Even though it the church has been considerably altered, to this current day, St Mary Woolnoth intensely demonstrates how adept Hawksmoor had become, his dramatic technique of controlling space and light in a confined space showed his true capabilities. St Mary Woolnoth plays a big part in Nicholas Hawksmoor reputation as an architect. Hawksmoor has had great tutors stand by his side, especially Sir Christopher Wren. His chapel designs of Baroque architecture relate to Wren's work, which the St Marys Woolnoth is a great demonstration. Even though St Mary Woolnoth has been through the list of demolishing many times, it still stands to this day. It has become well known due to the fact it’s been put up for deconstruction and had drawn many architect’s attention. The development of King Williams Street has brought more attention to the area, therefore, St Mary Woolnoth now seems ‘out of place’. It’s a small building, however, it’s a very powerful Baroque architecture. The elevation is designed well, with the twin towers bringing an individuality to the church. The floor plans are well considered with the galleries on the upper floor looking down over the altar. The use of columns inside and outside the chapel is a unique feature that links the exterior with the interior.