Description
Christ Church Spitalfields was built 1714-1729 following the 1711 Fifty New Churches Act with money raised by tax on coal. Its churchyard was much larger than the present garden, the original ground enlarged in the late C18th and mid C19th when it extended from Brick Lane to Commercial Road and used for some 67,000 burials.
Practical Information
| Site location | Commercial Street, Spitalfields |
|---|---|
| Postcode | E1 6LY |
| What3Words | ///herds.salad.gains |
| Type of Site | Public Gardens |
| Borough | Tower Hamlets |
| Open to Public | Yes |
| Opening Times | 8am - dusk |
| Public Transport | Tube: Aldgate East (District/Hammersmith & City). Bus: 67 |
| Research Updated | 1 July 2010 |
| Last Updated | 18 October 2026 |
Full description
Nicholas Hawksmoor's Christ Church Spitalfields was built 1714-1729 following the 1711 Fifty New Churches Act with money raised by tax on coal; it was the first of his three churches in the East End, the others being St Anne Limehouse and St George-in-the-East (q.q.v.). His original design for Christ Church was estimated at £9,129 16s but actually cost over £39,000. The foundations were laid in 1714 and the church was finally consecrated on 5 July 1714. Income for the upkeep of the church came from various sources including leasing box pews to wealthy local families, burials in the crypt paid for by those fearful of body-snatchers, which was designed to cater for 1,000 bodies, and in the mid C19th church elders decided to charge double fees for burials of non-parishioners. The congregation included Huguenot refugees who had fled to this country, many settling in Spitalfields; over half of the C18th gravestones showed French names as a result.
The present garden is a fragment of the original burial ground for Christ Church, which altogether saw 68,000 burials, 67,000 of which were outside the church. Until the latter part of the C19th the churchyard extended east to Brick Lane; it had been enlarged in 1791 and in 1859 it was extended to Commercial Street to the west. It was closed for burials and was converted into a public garden by the MPGA in 1892, the layout the work of Fanny Wilkinson, landscape gardener to the MPGA. It was later largely built over, partly by a children's school/playgroup, and most of the monuments were removed in 1950. Harold Clunn remarked in 1945 that the 'churchyard [is] now a pleasant public garden'. Within the garden are notable London plane trees and it has C19th gates and piers, a drinking fountain and cattle trough installed by the Metropolitan Cattle Trough and Drinking Fountain Association.
By 1957 the church had fallen into disrepair and was closed as a dangerous structure but through the efforts of the active Friends of Christ Church Spitalfields, formed in the 1970s, the church has been brought back to use, both for worship as well as the venue for the Spitalfields Festival. The Friends Group has been involved in restoration of the church interior, and in 1999 reinstated the South Steps, which had been removed in the C19th, according to Nicholas Hawksmoor's original plans. Outside the church on Commercial Street are former underground public toilets, long since disused, but which were the venue for artists' installations in the 1980s/90s, after a proposal to open them as a restaurant was blocked.
The present garden is a fragment of the original burial ground for Christ Church, which altogether saw 68,000 burials, 67,000 of which were outside the church. Until the latter part of the C19th the churchyard extended east to Brick Lane; it had been enlarged in 1791 and in 1859 it was extended to Commercial Street to the west. It was closed for burials and was converted into a public garden by the MPGA in 1892, the layout the work of Fanny Wilkinson, landscape gardener to the MPGA. It was later largely built over, partly by a children's school/playgroup, and most of the monuments were removed in 1950. Harold Clunn remarked in 1945 that the 'churchyard [is] now a pleasant public garden'. Within the garden are notable London plane trees and it has C19th gates and piers, a drinking fountain and cattle trough installed by the Metropolitan Cattle Trough and Drinking Fountain Association.
By 1957 the church had fallen into disrepair and was closed as a dangerous structure but through the efforts of the active Friends of Christ Church Spitalfields, formed in the 1970s, the church has been brought back to use, both for worship as well as the venue for the Spitalfields Festival. The Friends Group has been involved in restoration of the church interior, and in 1999 reinstated the South Steps, which had been removed in the C19th, according to Nicholas Hawksmoor's original plans. Outside the church on Commercial Street are former underground public toilets, long since disused, but which were the venue for artists' installations in the 1980s/90s, after a proposal to open them as a restaurant was blocked.
Further Information
| Grid Reference | TQ337817 |
|---|---|
| Size in hectares | 0.1875 |
| Site Ownership | LB Tower Hamlets or church? |
| Site Management | Leisure Services, Parks and Open Spaces. Friends of Christ Church Spitalfields |
| Dates | 1720; 1892 |
| Designers | 1892: MPGA (Fanny Wilkinson) |
| Listed Structures | LBI: Christ Church including gate piers and gates to verger's yard. LBII: Nash Monument in churchyard; 5 bollards in front of churchyard on Commercial Street, Drinking Fountain; Cattle and Horse Trough; Christchurch Rectory and railings |
| On National Heritage List for England (NHLE), Parks & Gardens | No |
| Registered common or village green on Commons Registration Act 1965 | No |
| Protected under London Squares Preservation Act 1931 | No |
| Local Authority | Tower Hamlets |
| In Conservation Area | Yes |
| Conservation Area Name | Fournier Street |
| Tree Preservation Order | No |
| Nature Conservation Area | No |
| Green Belt | No |
| Metropolitan Open Land | No |
| Special Policy Area | No |
Gallery
Please note the Inventory and its content are provided for your general information only and are subject to change. It is your responsibility to check the accuracy.
Nearby parks and gardens
The Holland Estate consists of former LCC and Tower Hamlets Council housing in the Spitalfields area built from 1927 onwards. Among the interwar buildings are three 4-storey Neo-Georgian blocks, Carter House, Brune House and Bernard House, ranged around a courtyard garden with a fourth 3-storey building, Barnett House in the centre facing onto Bell Lane. This communal garden is now Holland Estate Residents' Garden, which was refurbished in spring 2010 with part-funding under Section 106 from LB Tower Hamlets. The garden consists of areas of lawn and paving, raised beds and a number of trees.
Cock Hill is an alley leading from New Street that forms the east side of the small courtyard of No. 21 New Street. The building was formerly a wool warehouse built for the Coopers' Company in the 1860s and later converted to offices in the 1980s. The entrance archway to the small courtyard has a distinctive free-standing ram over the gate. Within the courtyard is a fountain, planting and some tubs.
Cutlers Gardens, a C20th office, retail and residential development with generous landscaping, is on a historic site. From C2nd to C4th the area was used for burials and later rubbish pits; in the C10th the land was granted to 13 medieval knights, known as the Cnihtengild, who held it until 1108 when Holy Trinity Priory was founded at Aldgate and the monks had a convent garden here. This was built over by the C16th and by 1700 the area was covered with tenements, workshops and small industries. In 1768 the East India Company began purchasing land here and built warehouses, expanding its property over the years. In 1833 the Company's trade monopoly with China ended and St Katharine's Dock Company purchased the warehouses, which in 1909 transferred to the Port of London Authority who used them until 1976. Commercial development of the site began in 1978, a combination of new build and restoration of some of the old buildings, with generous landscaping part of the scheme.
