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The Restoration of the Temple Church: Ecclesiology and Recrimination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

J. Mordaunt Crook
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Extract

The restoration of the Temple Church in the early 1840s was a major triumph for ecclesiology and a minor tragedy for several of the individuals involved. Natural hazards, from the Great Fire to Hitler's bombs, and the fashions of taste, from the age of Wren to the age of Pugin, have combined to make the Temple Church an architectural palimpsest of extraordinary interest. Its construction during the 12th and 13th centuries had been a milestone in the development of the Gothic style. The alterations of the 17th and 18th centuries represent an interesting commentary on the vagaries of liturgical fashion. Its restoration during the 19th century was an early landmark in the history of the Gothic Revival. Its partial destruction in 1941 made possible the most drastic and the most accomplished restoration of all.

Both the Inner and Middle Temple contributed to the remarkable expansion of public building during the post-Napoleonic period. In 1819 both societies appointed a new architect with a mandate for reconstruction. The Inner Temple chose Robert (later Sir Robert) Smirke.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 8 , 1965 , pp. 39 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1965

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References

Notes

1. The restoration was the work of W. H. Godfrey, cf. Country Life, 13.XI.1958.

2. John Gorham, “surveyor and bricklayer”, died in 1801 and was succeeded by James Hall of Bloomsbury Place. Hall died in 1809 and was replaced by Joseph Wigg, who resigned in 1819. In 1811 Wigg was presented with a piece of plate costing £50, “for his attention to the repairing and beautifying of the Temple Church ”. (Inner Temple MSS, Inner Temple Bench Table Orders (henceforth I.T.B.T.O.), Index 1801–26, p. 453–4). In 1814 he was responsible for Nos. 10 and 11 King's Bench Walk, (ibid., p. 54).

3. Surveyor, Engineer and Architect, 1840, 248 Google Scholar.

4. Charles Lamb, ‘The Old Benchers’ from Essays of Elia, (1823). ed. Sir F. D. Mac- kinnon, 1927.

5. Cf. A New View of London, 1708, II, 563–823 Google Scholar; Maitland, , History of London (1756 edn.)Google Scholar; Jekyll, J., Facts and Observations relating to the Temple Church, 1811 Google Scholar; Billings, R. W., Illustrations of the Temple Church, 1838 Google Scholar; and prints in National Buildings Record and Bodleian Douce Portfolio N. 8.

6. Gentleman's Magazine, 1811, I, 100 Google Scholar.

7. Ibid., 1808, II, 1000.

8. Literary Gazette, 1840, 839 Google Scholar.

9. Gentleman's Magazine, 1808, II, 997 Google Scholar. For the celebrated organ cf. Thornbury, J., Old and New London, 1897, I, 154 Google Scholar; Worley, G., The Church of the Knights Templars, 1907, pp. 66–9Google Scholar. For the reredos cf. Wren Society, XIV, p. xxiii.

10. Gentleman's Magazine, 1811,1,100.

11. Baylis, T. H., Temple Church, 1900, p. 65 Google Scholar.

12. Billings, , op. cit., p. 47 Google Scholar.

13. Allen, T., History of London, 1827, IV, 394–5Google Scholar.

14. Godwin, G., Churches of London, 1838, I Google Scholar.

15. I.T.B.T.O., 24.11.1826.

16. Athenaeum, 1843, 301 Google Scholar.

17. Smirke, S. and Essex, R. H., Temple Church Restored, 1845, p. 4 Google Scholar. The Chapel was in turn a shrine for barren wives, a conference chamber, and a depository for the records of the Fine Office of the Court of Common Pleas. (I.T.B.T.O., 8.11.1825). It may once have been an organ chamber. The undercroft survived. (Cf. plans by Society of Antiquaries in Vetusta Monumenta, 1828; Gentleman's Magazine, 1824, 11, 128, 405–7, 409; 1827, I, 386; Burge, T., Temple Church, 1843, p. 16 Google Scholar; prints of demolition in National Buildings Record).

18. I.T.B.T.O., 24.11.1826 and 30.11.1830.

19. Allen, op. cit.; Knight, C., London, 1877, V, 22–3Google Scholar; Billings, , op. cit., p. 55 Google Scholar; Godwin, op. cit.; Gentleman's Magazine, 1838, x, 292 Google Scholar.

20. I.T.B.T.O., 27.1.1819 and 20.11.1829; Wright, T., History and Antiquities of London, Westminister and Southwark, 1837, p. 347 Google Scholar.

21. I.T.B.T.O., 30.11.1830.

22. Ibid., 14.6.1839 (Crosby's report) and 31.7.1839 (Smirke's report).

23. Ibid., 29.5.1840.

24. Ibid., 3.11.1840. The reredos returned from its exile in the Bowes Museum after bombing had obliterated its successor, designed by Sydney Smirke and improved by R. Blomfield. The pulpit was placed in Christ Church Newgate ( Kent, W., Encyclopaedia of London, 1937 Google Scholar).

25. Addison, C. G., Temple Church, 1843, p. 46 Google Scholar.

26. I.T.B.T.O., 3.11.1840.

27. Ibid., 16.6.1843.

28. Ibid., 10.7.1840. In 1868 a new vestry at the east end of the north side replaced that which stood, till 1861, against the north-west wall. There was formerly a vestry on the south side, described as new in the 1664 register. ( Worley, , op. cit., pp. 20–21 Google Scholar).

29. I.T.B.T.O., 3.11.1840 (Cottingham's report).

30. Ibid., 23.4.1841.

31. Ibid.

32. Ibid., 1.5.1841.

33. Ibid., 12.5.1841.

34. Ibid., 19.5.1841.

35. Ibid., 29.5.1841.

36. Ibid., 14.7.1841.

37. Ibid. Savage surrendered a portfolio of 79 drawings.

38. Ibid., 6.10.1841.

39. Ibid., 11.8.1841.

40. Bumpus, T. F., Old Churches of London, 1924, p. 98 Google Scholar.

41. Athenaeum, 1843, 302 Google Scholar.

42. Builder, 1847, 241 Google ScholarPubMed.

43. Ibid., 1843, 470; Gentleman's Magazine, 1842, XVIII, 521 and 1843, XIX, 31Google Scholar; Bumpus, , op. cit., p. 94 Google Scholar; Smirke, S., op. cit., p. 6 Google Scholar; Summerly, F., A Glance at the Temple Church, 1842 Google Scholar.

44. Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal, 1841, 26 Google Scholar; Athenaeum, 1843 Google ScholarPubMed, 39: Burge, op. cit., p. 46; S. Smirke, op. cit.

45. I.T.B.T.O., 6.10.1841.

46. Loftie, W. J., Inns ol Court and Chancery, 1895, p. 55 Google Scholar.

47. Knight, , op. cit., p. 20 Google Scholar.

48. I.T.B.T.O., 10.2.1841. Savage had planned “ a monumental cloister round three sides of the Master's garden”, (ibid., 3.11.1840).

49. Athenaeum, 1842, 1014.

50. I.T.B.T.O., 16.6.1843.

51. Gentleman's Magazine, 1843, xx, 301 Google Scholar; Bellot, H.H.L., Inner and Middle Temple, 1902, p. 228 Google Scholar.

52. I.T.B.T.O., 16.6.1843.

53. Ibid., 12.3.1844, 6.3.1844.

54. Athenaeum 1843, 301 Google Scholar. A special opening service was held on Sunday, 29th October, 1843, ( Builder, 1843, I, 470 Google Scholar).

55. Ecclesiologist, 1842, I, 41 Google Scholar.

56. Ibid., 24 and 98. Sydney Smirke's altar and reredos were altered by Reginald Blomfield in 1908.

57. Christian Remembrancer, 1842, IV, 611–23Google Scholar.