Christ Church Crypt Restored

A new entrance to the crypt

A year ago, I photographed the crypt of Christ Church Spitalfields when all the walls had been cleared out and Nicholas Hawksmoor’s structure was revealed for the first time since the eighteenth century. Last week, I returned now the restoration has been completed, in the company of Biba Dow of Dow Jones Architects who has overseen the project.

Church architects did not design crypts with any other purpose than to support the nave, but the opportunistic clergy in the eighteenth century saw the commercial possibility of charging families for the storage of the remains of their loved ones as means to pay for the running costs of the church. Thus, by the eighteen-twenties, the crypt of Christ Church was full of bodies which packed the space until the nineteen-eighties when they were excavated and removed to the Natural History Museum. Subsequently, the homeless shelter begun by the Spitalfields Crypt Trust in 1965 acquired its own building in Shoreditch High St where it continues to operate today.

These changes permitted the opening of the crypt as a public space for the local community, offering a refectory, parish rooms and an intimate chapel, all within a flexible interior suitable for gatherings, both large and small. In fulfilling this brief, Dow Jones Architects have been scrupulous to undertake no intervention that cannot be reversed and to ensure the distinction between their sympathetic additions and the original structure is always apparent.

A York stone floor has been installed throughout, extending the streetscape into the crypt and complementing the Portland stone of the church. All new joinery, panelling and furniture is of oak and the metalwork of bronze, restricting the textures introduced alongside the patina of the crypt. This limited range of materials draws your eye back to the subtle irregularities of Hawksmoor’s vaulted roof and its architectural precedents – the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul and the Fish Market in Venice.

The refectory in the crypt is open to all from this Thursday 19th November, offering a new refuge to escape the clamour of Spitalfields within a space that has provided harbour to humanity for three centuries already.

Plaques declaring the boundaries of church’s land and commemorating the fire house

Crypt during restoration work

A stone ramp leads down to the refectory

Crypt during restoration work

Eighteenth century shroud discovered during the excavations in 1984-1986

An intimate chapel in the crypt

Crypt during restoration work

Archaeological excavations in the crypt, 1984-86

The crypt restored

The crypt was used as a bomb shelter in World War Two

Memorial stone to Edward Peck, one of the commissioners of the church

The crypt restored