St. George’s Bloomsbury

St. George’s Bloomsbury, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, a leading architect of the English baroque, opened its doors in 1730. St. George’s impressive façade features a Corinthian portico, but it is the extraordinary steeple, based on the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, that is the truly unique contribution of St. George’s to the streetscape and skyline of London. The lions and unicorns on the steeple, depicted fighting for the crown underneath George I in Roman dress, were removed in the Victorian period. The conservation program undertaken by World Monuments Fund was completed in 2009 and restored many elements of the interior and exterior to a more stable and admirable state. Replicas of the lions and unicorns were created by British sculptors, restoring the remarkable steeple to Hawksmoor's original design. An important new feature is a seventeenth-century Dutch chandelier, loaned from the Victoria & Albert Museum, which hangs in the center of the nave, a fitting lighting fixture for St. George’s Bloomsbury, evoking the period and serving contemporary needs.

View of façade, 2006