The Crypt of St. Leonard's Church, Shoreditch.

[Aldgate West]

If this don't give you the bleed'n willies, nuffin' will...

[johnworc]

Didn't give me the "willies" at all - I thought that was fantastic. The crypt does need a good tidy-up, though! I'm trying to remember if the underground tour was lef by the vicar, Rev. Paul Turp - I went to some services there in 1997. It's a lovely church but the whole structure had started "bowing" following removal of galleries - they were hoping for a lottery grant to fix it up - don't know if they have managed to.
St Leonard's was our family church - before we left to come to Melbourne as pioneers in 1839.
I was at Melbourne's original Anglican parish church last Sunday - patronal festival for St James. Great-grandfather led the choir at its official opening in 1842 - ours is a regency-style building, a beautiful structure, quaint tower with a peal of bells and a modern organ that retains some 1868 pipework. When Bishop Perry was appointed in the later 1840s, the church suddenly became a "cathedral" - and to this day, it's styled as "St James', Old Cathedral". In the 1880s, they build a big neo-Gothic cathedral (St Paul's) which is when we became "the Old Cathedral" - and, in 1914, because the city land had achieved a high value, the Anglican Church arranged for St James to be moved, stone by stone to a new site (on Flagstaff Hill, on the northern edge of the City). My grandfather and his brothers attended school at St James in the 1850s ! He finished his schooling in London at the "Greenwich Science School" before taking up a cabinet-making apprenticeship with a coffin maker in the centre of Greenwich. The family spent 10 years back in London (living at Lewisham and Blackheath) before returning to Melbourne.

[Aldgate West]

Didn't give me the "willies" at all -

Well, let me put it this way, John... I don't think I'd want to spend a night down there by meself, especially without any lights.
I remember they still had the pillory standing out front when I was a kid.
Other than that, yes, it IS very interesting seeing the old artifacts stored down there.

[johnworc]

I do think a good clean-up and some restoration would be good - a tourist attraction!
I was once in St Mary Abchurch and got down into the crypt and was shown where a brick had been prised out. In the other half of the crypt I could see lots of skeletons - from the Great Plague. That was a bit grisly.
I guess sufficient funds to develop something at St Leonard's would be hard to raise. I remember the stocks - and the whipping post. I used to wonder whether any family members had been locked up in them!

[jo]

id like to go down there and have a lookie round , id like some company and some lights tho

[Barryoneoff]

I'd love to go too. Don't want to fall over in the dark and break my *beep* neck though!

[johnworc]

I'd certainly be in it - must remember to see about the possibility next visit.

[Aldgate West]

A bit more....

[Aldgate West]

It seems someone has plans to bury SHOREDITCH...

[johnworc]

Thanks, Bill, for finding those two U-tube videos on Shoreditch - especially the one about the old church having lain beneath St Leonard's all these years. As I recall, the new church of St Leonard's was built in 1740 by Charles Dance. In the City, Sir Christopher Wren often built his new churches on the old foundations, St Mary Aldermary springs to mind, also St Bride's. It was also nice to see the vicar, the Rev Paul Turp, showing the reporter around the crypt. They do need a large sum (lottery fund?) to do any work there; it's not an enormous congregration - especially as the number of Turkish businesses up the Kingsland Road nearby seem to be mostly Turkish, hence Muslim.
As for the second video about plans to turn Shoreditch into a Canary Wharf: that would be appalling. I looked for the website but it turned out to have nothing of the protest group on, but merely a portal to a range of London-related links. Perhaps the crisis has been averted?? The video refers to how easily Ken Livingston allowed development in - well, he's gone, so it's a bit out of date.
T

[Aldgate West]

The video refers to how easily Ken Livingston allowed development in - well, he's gone, so it's a bit out of date.

I wasn't sure when that video was made, John, but the idea of burying Shoreditch beneath skyscrapers sounded almost "criminal".
If the current St. Leonard's church and crypt was built over the crypt of the older church, that would explain the vault containing the coffin in the first video that's below the present crypt that has no stairs with which to descend to the lower crypt. Plus, they probably wouldn't have wanted to disturb the older tombs below when building the new church and crypt. I think the Rev. Turp may be on to something.

[Grumpy Geez]

Is St. Leonards church the same as what I know as Shoreditch church at the junction of Hackney road and Kingsland road and opposite Old Street. The mention of a set of stocks and a whipping post makes me think it is.

[johnworc]

Yes, Grumpy Geez, that's the church.