ALL HALLOWS TO BE DEMOLISHED

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 158, 1 April 1937, Page 3

ALL HALLOWS TO BE DEMOLISHED

Famous English Church

PLAN APPROVED BY PRIVY COUNCIL

All Hallows, the famous London city church designed by Wren, is to be demolished and the benefice combined with that of St. Edmund the King, Lombard Street. This is the effect of a decision by the Law Lords of the Privy Council—Lord Sankey, Lord Blanesborough, and Lord Alness—who had heard arguments for and against a scheme put forward by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Opposition was offered by the City Corporation, the Conference of Learned Societies, and Mr. P. Molteno (who claimed rights as a parishioner of All Hallows). It. is proposed to sell the site of the church—which, if has been suggested, is worth at. least £150,000 —and to build elsewhere in the London diocese another church of All Hallows which, while not attempting to reproduce Wren's design, will be a suitable setting for the furniture and fittings of the present building. It was stated that the stipends for the two churches totalled £3056—A1l Hallows £1834 and St. Edmund £1222— and that the Ecclesiastical Commissioners "found it difficult to justify payment of that amount.” “In the opinion of their lordships, this was not surprising,” said Lord Sankey. Lord Sankey said that the proceeds of the sale of the church site, after providing for compensation to church servants and other matters, were to be applied in providing a church and parsonage for a new ecclesiastical district in the diocese of London to be called All Hallows; in appropriating £24.000 toward two churches in two new ecclesiastical districts: in providing £BOOO toward the rebuilding of St. Dionis Hall, and in appropriating such sum as the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the bishop might approve toward the cost of providing new churches within the portions of the dioceses of Canterbury, Chelmsford, London, Rochester, and Southwark, which are in the metropolitan area. Rectors’ Support The rector of All Hallows had said that both he and the parochial church council felt that the essence of the situation was that the church was not needed as a parish church, and that everything for the spiritual welfare of the parish could be better done under this scheme. The rector of St. Edmund said that the activities in connection with All Hallows could be carried on at St. Edmund, and that St. Dionis Hall, if improved as was intended, would be a great boon to the parish.

Lord Sankey added that since the war at least half a million people had settled in the new districts of London. A typical example was Greenford, where, in 11)14, lhe population was SOO: to-day the population was at least 30.000. Another example was Keston, which in 1914 was an agricultural dis-

trict. with a population under 200. Today the population was 25,000. It must not be imagined that the diocese of London had done nothing to remedy that state of affairs. On the contrary, apart from local effort, £410,000 had been spent on providing new churches. It had been urged that it was ■ not wise to “spoon-feed” the residents of new parishes and that they ought to provide the money themselves. But the population of those parishes consisted of clerks and artisans, and, although they could find money for the maintenance of church activities, it would be quite impossible for them to find the large capital sum necessary for building a church. On balance, therefore, the advantages of the scheme from a religious point of view were very great. It had been urged on behalf of the Royal Academy and other learned societies that, while the church itself from an architectural point of view was of no great value, it was a casket which enshrined fittings of a most beautiful character which ought not to f be separated. The ecclesiastical commissioners were prepared to give an undertaking giving a right to St. Edmund Church to certain of the fittings and providing that all fittings which were now in the church, which were worthy of preservation, should, if suitable. be placed in the new church of All Hallows.