HEAVY LOSS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 157, 31 December 1940, Page 7

HEAVY LOSS

WREN MASTERPIECES

SIX CHURCHES HIT

FOUR IN RUINS

(British Official Wireless.) (Received December 31, 10.40 a.m.)]

RUGBY, December 30.

St. Bride's Church, in a courtyard off Fleet Street, was set* alight early in last night's raid on London. Only blackened walls and the magnificent tapering tower and spire, generally regarded as one of Sir Christopher Wren's masterpieces, now remain. This slender spire, originally 234 feet high but later lowered by eight feet, is one of the most impressive features of London's skyline.

Voluntary helpers worked splendidly to subdue the flames and salve the furnishings, but almost as soon as they left the building the roof crashed in.

Another Wren church which was completely gutted last night was that of St. Vedast Foster. It is one of the less important of the 50 churches which Wren rebuilt after the Great Fire. , ■ j Irreparable loss has been suffered at'another Wren church—St. Lawrence Jewry—owing to the destruction of some of the most beautiful and valuable wood-carving of the celebrated Grinling Gibbons which formed part ofTts decoration. ~

Another Wren church which represented one of his most striking experiments in the adaption of Gothic design to the classical impulse is that of St. Mary Aldermary, which has been reduced to a shell by last night's raid, and yet another, St. Andre w-by-the-Wardrobe, shared a. similar fate.

Three hospitals, one muse&n, several schools, commercial premises, shops, and offices were more or less seriously damaged in fires last night.

The highest tributes were paid to- ' day to the skill and daring displayed . by the regular auxiliary firemen in successfully dealing with the fires, which put their services to a very severe test.

The ancient hall of the Girdlers* Company was wrecked. St. Paul's Cathedral was hit by incendiary bombs but was saved by the prompt use of stirrup pumps by the Cathedral staff. Incendiaries which fell on the roof of the Guildhall were similarly extinguished, but later the flames from the burning church of St. Lawrence Jewry spread across the small courthouse, which remained undamaged, and set fire to the roof of the Guildhall, with disastrous results to the building erected between 1411 and 1435 and to the cost of which the famous Lord Mayor, Sir Richard Whittington

—"Turn Again, Whittington," of the nursery rhyme—contributed. It was named the Guildhall because the medieval guilds met there.