“QUEEN ANNE’S FOOTSTOOL"

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27407, 21 July 1954, Page 3

“QUEEN ANNE’S FOOTSTOOL"

Famous Church To Be Restored (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON. July 20. The Works Minister, Sir David Eccles, has given a licence for the restoration of St. John’s Church, in Smith square, Westminster, which for more than 200 years has been known to Londoners as “Queen Anne’s Footstool.” The church was built in 1721. Tradition says that when the architect, Thomas Archer, showed his first drawings to the Queen she disliked tftem intensely. In her irritation she overturned a footstool. “There,” she said, pointing to the stool with its legs lying in the air, “build it like that.” So Archer built it with a turret at each of its four corners. The church was burnt out in an air raid in Sep-

tember, 1940, and the parish has been incorporated in an adjoining one. At a cost of £125,000, the building will be adapted by the London Diocesan Fund to form a central archive for tons of parish registers and ancient documents now lying in individual churches throughout the diocese. BANKS PENINSULA COUNTIES a AMALGAMATION TO BE DISCUSSED The three Banks Peninsula counties —Akaroa. Wairewa and Mount Herbert—will meet at Little River on August 23 to discuss amalgamation. The meeting has been called by the Wairewa County Council, which recently took part in talks held by the Springs, Paparua and Halswell counties. The council feels that, although it is not in favour of amalgamation, it cannot be definite until it has considered the subject further. poration, particularly as alternative methods of drainage would probably be unsatisfactory owing to the unsuitability of the ground for soak I pits.”