You are in London. If you come from a deeply religious country, you may get a shock when you find out that many churches have been transformed into dwellings, cultural venues and so on. If you go back to one of my July posts, you will read about a West Kensington church which now houses The Institute of Indian Arts and Culture. It Spitalfields, East London, there is a mosque that occupies a former synagogue which had replaced the original Protestant chapel.
Where then would you expect to find The Museum of Comedy?
Where else? At a church undercroft in Bloomsbury, five minutes' walk from The British Museum!
Where then would you expect to find The Museum of Comedy?
Where else? At a church undercroft in Bloomsbury, five minutes' walk from The British Museum!
St George's Church remained in a not-well-looked after state for years so it is good to see that things are changing. Designed by Nicholas Hawskmoore (an eminent pupil and assistant of Sir Christopher Wren), the church has some truly spectacular features. Let me quote the Wiki:
The stepped tower is influenced by Pliny the Elder's description of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, and topped with a statue of King George I in Roman dress. Its statues of fighting lions and unicorns symbolise the recent end of the First Jacobite Rising. The Portico is based on that of the Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek, Lebanon.
The tower is depicted in William Hogarth's well-known engraving "Gin Lane" (1751). Charles Dickens used St George's as the setting for "The Bloomsbury Christening" in Sketches by Boz.
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