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St Matthias Old Church
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St Matthias Old Church
St Matthias Old Church is the modern name given to the Poplar Chapel built by the East India Company in 1654, in Poplar. The church is designated a Grade II* listed building.
St Matthias Old Church is one of the very few extant churches built under the Commonwealth (others include those at Berwick-on-Tweed, Staunton Harold, Ninekirks and Brougham.)
In 1627 the East India Company (EIC) purchased a house in Poplar High Street to be used as a hospital for disabled seamen. In 1618 a corrupt jeweller, Hugh Greete, had been sent back from India for stealing stones. He died in prison in 1619, and directed that a school or hospital be founded from his estate. The Company had set up a shipyard in Blackwall in 1614, so neighbouring Poplar was the obvious choice for location. In 1633 the inhabitants of Poplar and Blackwall – largely employees of the EIC – requested that a chapel be built there as St Dunstan's, Stepney was too far away for them. When Gilbert Dethick, the Lord of the manor of Poplar, died in 1639 he left a further £100 towards the building of the chapel, on the condition that work started within three years of his death.
The beginning of the work coincided with the outbreak of the English Civil War. William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury was executed in 1645 after being prominently involved in debates about church architecture and internal décor. With a further bequest from Sir John Gayer, a director of the EIC, and money direct from the Company, work got properly underway in 1652. The first payment was made to John Tanner, Master of the Bricklayers' Company in 1654, who became the principal builder.
The burial ground was allotted to the chapel in 1657.
St Matthias is a brick building enhanced with stone quoins at the corners. It combines Classical and Gothic elements, similar to St Katherine Cree in the City of London, consecrated in 1631.
Internally, the barrel-vaulted roof is supported by eight Tuscan columns, seven of oak and one of stone. There is no evidence to support the story that they were made from ships' masts. This gives a Dutch flavour to the architecture reminiscent of Hendrick de Keyser who built several churches in Amsterdam in the early seventeenth century.
During the eighteenth century various changes were made: a tower added (1718), a triple-decker pulpit (1733) and extensive repairs and alterations to the windows in 1775–1776 (architect: Richard Jupp). In the early 19th century a mural monument to George Steevens by John Flaxman was commissioned; this is currently on loan to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
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St Matthias Old Church
St Matthias Old Church is the modern name given to the Poplar Chapel built by the East India Company in 1654, in Poplar. The church is designated a Grade II* listed building.
St Matthias Old Church is one of the very few extant churches built under the Commonwealth (others include those at Berwick-on-Tweed, Staunton Harold, Ninekirks and Brougham.)
In 1627 the East India Company (EIC) purchased a house in Poplar High Street to be used as a hospital for disabled seamen. In 1618 a corrupt jeweller, Hugh Greete, had been sent back from India for stealing stones. He died in prison in 1619, and directed that a school or hospital be founded from his estate. The Company had set up a shipyard in Blackwall in 1614, so neighbouring Poplar was the obvious choice for location. In 1633 the inhabitants of Poplar and Blackwall – largely employees of the EIC – requested that a chapel be built there as St Dunstan's, Stepney was too far away for them. When Gilbert Dethick, the Lord of the manor of Poplar, died in 1639 he left a further £100 towards the building of the chapel, on the condition that work started within three years of his death.
The beginning of the work coincided with the outbreak of the English Civil War. William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury was executed in 1645 after being prominently involved in debates about church architecture and internal décor. With a further bequest from Sir John Gayer, a director of the EIC, and money direct from the Company, work got properly underway in 1652. The first payment was made to John Tanner, Master of the Bricklayers' Company in 1654, who became the principal builder.
The burial ground was allotted to the chapel in 1657.
St Matthias is a brick building enhanced with stone quoins at the corners. It combines Classical and Gothic elements, similar to St Katherine Cree in the City of London, consecrated in 1631.
Internally, the barrel-vaulted roof is supported by eight Tuscan columns, seven of oak and one of stone. There is no evidence to support the story that they were made from ships' masts. This gives a Dutch flavour to the architecture reminiscent of Hendrick de Keyser who built several churches in Amsterdam in the early seventeenth century.
During the eighteenth century various changes were made: a tower added (1718), a triple-decker pulpit (1733) and extensive repairs and alterations to the windows in 1775–1776 (architect: Richard Jupp). In the early 19th century a mural monument to George Steevens by John Flaxman was commissioned; this is currently on loan to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
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