Enjoy digging into London history? Try our free weekly newsletter, Londonist: Time Machine.
If you go for a walk in Stanmore at the northern end of the Jubilee line — and you should, because it has many interesting corners — then you might stumble across 👆this unusual sight 👆.
It's a church, but with another church in its churchyard.
What's more, the secondary church is a crumbling ruin. What gives?
The crumbly church is, as you'd expect, the oldest. It was built in 1632 as a larger replacement for a medieval church (long vanished and on a different site, down Old Church Lane). It's a peculiar affair. Built mostly of red brick, but with Portland stone flourishes, the Illustrated London News described it as having "...little to admire, it being built of brick in the worst style of ecclesiastical architecture". Which seems a little harsh.
People weren't so sniffy when it was first built. Indeed, they got a bit of a celebrity in to consecrate the brick church: William Laud, the Bishop of London, who dedicated the new-build to St John the Evangelist. Laud would go on to become the Archbishop of Canterbury the following year, only to have his head lopped off on Tower Hill in 1645.
By Victorian times, this end of Stanmore had grown to such an extent that the brick church was no longer large enough. It was also deemed to be structurally unsound, having been built on loose, gravelly ground (you get a hint of this from the many wonky tombstones). A replacement church with stronger foundations, also dedicated to St John the Evangelist, was built in 1848-50 a few grave plots to the east. You can see the size difference in satellite view.
Once again, the parish managed to attract a celebrity or two. The Earl of Aberdeen, who would soon become Prime Minister, laid the foundation stone. Queen Adelaide, widow of William IV, was coaxed over from her nearby home of Bentley Priory to witness proceedings. It was to be her last public appearance.
Work began to demolish the redundant church, but it didn't get far. A huge public outcry forced church authorities to rethink, and the building was saved — albeit without a roof. It's lingered on now for the best part of two centuries as a romantic ruin.
After the new church was complete, most of the old monuments were shifted over. However, the space inside the old church has been used for later burials. The largest tomb within the building is that of the Robert Hollond and family.
Hollond was famous in his day, not so much as a parliamentarian, but as a world-record-holding balloonist. In 1837, Hollond and two others flew almost 500 miles from Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens to Weilburg in Germany. It was a record that would not be beaten until the 20th century. He rests in peace beneath the weathered tomb shown above. Also down there in an adjacent plot is the Earl of Aberdeen, whom we spotted laying the foundation stone of the new church a few paragraphs back.
The church was in a parlous state in the 1980s, greatly weakened by the effects of ivy and vandalism. Happily, English Heritage and others stepped in to safeguard the building, with lots of local support. The Queen Mother — following in the dowagerly footsteps of Queen Adelaide — also supported the church with a donation.
Perhaps the most impressive feature of the ruined church are its rear buttresses, added in the 19th century to try and stabilise the bell tower. Look at these meaty blighters:
Do come take a look at the peculiar pair of churches if you're ever in the Stanmore area. And if you'd like to read more, Stanmore Tourist Board (yes, really) has an excellent and more in-depth history of the old brick church here.
