Skip to content

Midwinter At Christ Church

December 21, 2015
by the gentle author

Today is the shortest day of the year and, at eleven minutes past five this afternoon, we pass the solstice taking us back towards shorter nights and longer days. At this time when the sun is at its lowest angle, Christ Church Spitalfields can become an intricate light box with powerful rays of light entering almost horizontally from the south and illuminating Nicholas Hawksmoor’s baroque architecture in startling ways. Yesterday’s crystalline sunlight provided the ideal conditions for such phenomena and inspired me to attempt to capture of these fleeting effects of light.

You may also like to read about

Contemplating Christ Church

A View of Christ Church

The Secrets of Christ Church

Nicholas Hawksmoor’s Churches

14 Responses leave one →
  1. December 21, 2015

    Thank you for keep coming up with new items of interest, education, charm and beauty.

  2. Robert permalink
    December 21, 2015

    Christchurch simply leaves you in awe.

  3. December 21, 2015

    lovely pictures reminds me that in architecture ‘the key IS light’ as Le Corbusier once said and its play on the wonderful proportions ans interior of Nicholas Hawksmoor is stunning…Louis Khan once said ‘A room is not a room without natural light.’

  4. Liz L permalink
    December 21, 2015

    Absolutely beautiful!

  5. December 21, 2015

    Absolutley majestic! That building glows!
    Thank you for these and every other article and photos we’ve enjoyed all year.

    Merry Christmas, Gentle Author! May you enjoy some rest and some fine spirits!

    Linda in Toronto

  6. Alder Carr permalink
    December 21, 2015

    Wonderful photos make one re-appreciate the familiar.

  7. Sue Condon permalink
    December 21, 2015

    Really beautiful photos, lovely bit of information I did not know about the winter solstice and the glorious windows. Thank you for enlightening me (pardon the pun!).

  8. Donna permalink
    December 21, 2015

    Thanks for photos. Light is pristine in picking up details.

  9. December 21, 2015

    This is my favourite Hawksmoor Church. Valerie

  10. December 21, 2015

    Wonderful light.

  11. Alan Christon permalink
    December 21, 2015

    Thank you so much for your photographs, I hope we have a result to save Norton Folgate, when I lived on the streets in Christmas 1987 , Norton Folgate took me in.
    Thank you

  12. December 22, 2015

    Absolutely gorgeous, I just wish there was some info on each of the photos to enlighten an octogenarian antipodean who doubts he will now ever get the chance to visit these places

  13. Marnie permalink
    December 22, 2015

    Your gorgeous photos took me back to a time – could it be 20 years ago, maybe more – before the church was tarted up. I spent many very happy hours and days there, drawing, trying to learn about light and darkness, space, volume, weight. And about something which is really hard to capture – the spirit of a space. I loved the peeling paint, the dark shadows, the feeling of age, of it having been there for hundreds of years and having earned all those wrinkles.
    It was a very special time in my life – thank you for bringing it back.

  14. July 4, 2023

    My favorite of Hawksmoor’s churches is this one. Valerie

Leave a Reply

Note: Comments may be edited. Your email address will never be published.

Subscribe to this comment feed via RSS