A history of St Giles-in-the-Fields
There has been a house of prayer on the site of St Giles in the Fields since 1101, when Queen Matilda, wife of Henry I, founded a leper hospital here. The chapel probably became the church of a small village, which serviced the hospital, with the lepers screened off. In common with the other monasteries, the hospital was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1539 and its lands sold. The hospital chapel became a parish church and the first Rector of St Giles was appointed in 1547. This was when the words "in-the-fields" were added to its name.
The earliest illustration shows a church with a round tower, capped by a dome - which was replaced by a larger spire in 1617. Shortly afterwards the church was considered ruinous and a Gothic brick building was built between 1623-1630. This was largely paid for by Alice, Duchess Dudley, wife of Robert Dudley and consecrated by William Laud, Bishop of London. The church still has an illuminated manuscript listing the subscribers to this rebuilding, known as the Doomsday Book. Less than 100 years later, the new church was itself in a poor condition from damp, probably caused by the large number of Plague victim burials, the parishoners petitioned the Commissioners appointed in 1711 to build new churches in the London suburbs, for a grant to rebuild the church and were initially refused because it was not a new foundation. Eventually they allocated £8,000 and a new church was built in 1730-34, designed by the architect Henry Flitcroft in the palladian style (Flitcroft went on to design Woburn Abbey, the seat of the Dukes of Bedford, one of the principal landowners in this part of London). At the same time the elegant Vestry House was built, for meetings of the Vestry, the council of laypeople and clergy who managed parish affairs.
The population of the parish grew enormously in the 18th and 19th centuries, exceeding 30,000 by 1831. The "rookeries" between the church and Great Russell Street, and the area called Seven Dials, were amongst the most notorious in London for poverty and squalour.
The distinguished architects Sir Arthur Blomfield and Wiliam Butterfield made modest alterations in 1875 and 1896. St Giles escaped the severe damage in the bombing in the Second World War, which merely removed most of the Victorian glass. The church underwent a major restoration in 1952-3 described by John Betjeman as
"One of the most successful post-war church restorations…"
'The Spectator' March 9th 1956.
Since the 1950s the area has changed enormously, with the loss of small shops and houses in St Giles' High Street and the construction of the massive St Giles Court and Centre Point. The resident population is now about 4,600, and the church and churchyard have become an oasis of calm and contemplation in the midst of a vibrant commercial and cultural district.
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