When it opened in 1729, we are told, parts of the area then known as 'Wapping-Stepney' were still quite rural, with some open fields, and the area was only beginning to develop.
The area urbanised with the rise of the docklands, and was known for the production of maritime rope and cable - indeed, Cable Street was once the length of the standard cable measure at 600 feet - with the population increasing from around 300 houses in 1780 to nearly 49,000 at the time of the 1861 census. In 1836 the parish was constituted as a Poor Law parish under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834.
For a full fascinating history, see http://www.stgite.org.uk/history.html.
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I went to a talk at the recently restored St George's Bloomsbury last year which is also worth a visit. Hawksmoor really was a fantastic architect and his churches are a joy to look at.
ReplyDeleteOn a slight tangent, the novel Hawksmoor, which involves aspects of his life as imagined by Peter Ackroyd, is a good read...
My great-grandfather was baptized in this church. He came to Canada as a Barnardo orphan in 1885 at the age of 12.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great post and congrats on a great blog. I just added a link to yours from my blog www.janeaustenfilmclub.blogspot.com