St James Garlickhythe - History

History

The church is dedicated to the disciple St James known as ‘the Great’. St. James Garlickhythe is a stop on a pilgrim’s route ending at the cathedral of Santiago da Compostela. Visitors to the London church may have their credencial, or pilgrim passport, stamped with the impression of a scallop shell.

'Garlickhythe' refers to the nearby landing place, or "hythe", near which garlic was sold in medieval times.

The earliest surviving reference to the church is as ‘ecclesiam Sancti Jacobi’ in a 12th century will. Other records of the church refer to it as ‘St James in the Vintry’, ‘St James Comyns’, ‘St James-by-the-Thames’ and ‘St James super Ripam’.

The ships from France loaded with garlic also carried wine and St James has a long association with wine merchants. The church is located in the city ward of Vintry and in 1326, the Sheriff of London and Vintner, Richard de Rothing, paid to have the church rebuilt. Another company with long associations with the church is the Joiners' Company, who trace their origins back to a religious guild founded in St James in 1375.

In the following century, the church became collegiate and was served by 7 chantry priests. The eminence of St. James in the Middle Ages is reflected in it being the burial place of 6 Lord Mayors.

St. James became a parish church upon the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, although the church was not adversely affected – indeed it was a beneficiary of the demolition of church furnishings associated with the Catholic rite. In 1560, the rood screen of the nearby St. Martin Vintry was dismantled and fashioned into pews for St. James. At the same time, the choir was provided with song books.

Another change introduced under Henry VIII was the order that all parishes in England were to maintain a weekly register of births, deaths and marriages. The oldest surviving registers are those of St. James, the first entry being the baptism of Edward Butler on November 18, 1535.

St. James was repaired and expanded several times during the first half of the 17th century – the north aisle being rebuilt in 1624 and a gallery added in 1644.

Under the Commonwealth, the parishioners provided a pension for the rector after he was ousted, in 1647, for using the banned Book of Common Prayer.

All was lost in the Great Fire. Rebuilding began a decade later, as recorded on the Victorian vestry boards prominent in the church porch;

‘The foundation thereof were laid AD 1676 – John Hinde and John Hoyle, Church Wardens. It was rebuilt and re-opened 1682 and completely finished AD 1683…’ The body of the church may have been finished, but the tower lacked a steeple.

Recorded in the church’s accounts for 1682 are the items

1. Two bottles of sherry and pipes at the opening of the church 3.4
2. Hire of 3 dozen cushions and porterage 13.4
3. Wine when the Lord Mayor and Aldermen were at our church 1.11.0
4. Wax links to enlighten my Lord Mayor home 4.6

and a payment of 40s each to Wren’s 2 clerks ‘for their care and kindness in hastening the building of the church, and to induce them to do the like for the more speedy finishing of the Steeple.’

This inducement had no effect. Building on the steeple began 33 years later and finished in 1717 by Nicholas Hawksmoor. The total cost of the church and steeple was £7230.

On August 12, 1711, Richard Steele attended a Sunday service given by the Rector Philip Stubbs at St. James, and published the ensuing reflections in Issue 147 of The Spectator. He compares the moving delivery of the rector with a number of stereotypes – the quiet talker, the negligent reader, the fast talker and the bombast, then goes on to criticise the ranting of Presbyterians and Dissenters. Unfortunately, his account includes no description of the congregation or of the church itself.

One month after this sermon, the future composer and Master of the King’s Musick, William Boyce, was baptised in St. James Garlickhythe.

The second half of the 19th century saw a movement of population from the City of London to suburbs in Middlesex, Kent, Essex and Surrey. This left many of the city churches with tiny congregations. In 1860, Charles Dickens attended a Sunday service at St. James Garlickhythe which he describes in The Uncommercial Traveller. The congregation had dwindled to twenty, the building was pervaded with damp and dust, which Dickens uses to convey an impression of the presence of dead parishioners.

The Union of Benefices Act 1860 was passed by Parliament, permitting the demolition of City churches and the sale of land to build churches in the suburbs. While several nearby churches - some of architectural eminence - were destroyed under the Union of Benefices Act, St. James was spared, perhaps due to its links to the guilds.

During World War I, a bomb dropped by a Zeppelin missed the Church. In thanksgiving, the church introduced an annual Bomb Sermon.

In May 1941, during the London Blitz a 500 lb German HE bomb crashed through the roof of St. James and buried itself below the floor in the south aisle. It didn’t explode, but was removed to Hackney Marshes and detonated. The buildings surrounding St. James were destroyed by incendiary bombs and this caused much external damage to the church, including the destruction of its clock. While this damage was being repaired in 1953, it was found that the woodwork was infested with the Death Watch Beetle. This caused the church to be closed until 1963, while it was being restored by D Lockhart-Smith and Alexander Gale. The result was said by Sir John Betjeman to be the best restoration of a City church.

In 1991, during construction of Vintners Hall across Upper Thames Street, a crane collapsed and the jib buried itself in the south wall. This caused the church to be closed again while the south face was rebuilt and some of the furnishings replaced.

The church uses the original 1662 Book of Common Prayer. It is the church for 11 livery guild companies as well as being the church of the Intelligence Corps.