St Alfege Church is a Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 place of worship in the town centre of Greenwich

Greenwich

Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...

 in the eponymous London Borough

London Borough of Greenwich

The London Borough of Greenwich is an Inner London borough in south-east London, England. Taking its name from the historic town of Greenwich, the present borough was formed in 1965 by the amalgamation of the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich with part of the Metropolitan...

.

History

The church is dedicated to, and reputedly marks the place where Alfege (also spelt 'Alphege

Alphege

Ælfheah , officially remembered by the name Alphege within some churches, and also called Elphege, Alfege, or Godwine, was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Winchester, later Archbishop of Canterbury. He became an anchorite before being elected abbot of Bath Abbey...

'), Archbishop of Canterbury

Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...

, was killed by Viking

Viking

The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

 raiders on 19 April 1012.

The second church built on this site was constructed around 1290. It was here that Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 was baptised

Baptism

In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

 in 1491.

During a storm in 1710 the building collapsed, having had its foundation

Foundation (architecture)

A foundation is the lowest and supporting layer of a structure. Foundations are generally divided into two categories: shallow foundations and deep foundations.-Shallow foundations:...

 weakened by burials both inside and outside. The current building, incorporating the earlier tower

Tower

A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....

, was designed by Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 Nicholas Hawksmoor

Nicholas Hawksmoor

Nicholas Hawksmoor was a British architect born in Nottinghamshire, probably in East Drayton.-Life:Hawksmoor was born in Nottinghamshire in 1661, into a yeoman farming family, almost certainly in East Drayton, Nottinghamshire. On his death he was to leave property at nearby Ragnall, Dunham and a...

 in 1714, and was funded by the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches

Commission for Building Fifty New Churches

The Commission for Building Fifty New Churches was an organisation set up by Act of Parliament in England in 1711, with the purpose of building fifty new churches for the rapidly growing conurbation of London...

. It was completed in 1718.

The tower later became unsafe and was encased within a new tower designed by John James in 1730. The spire was again replaced in 1830, when it was struck by lightning.

During the Blitz

The Blitz

The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...

 on March 19, 1941, incendiary bombs landed on the roof

Roof

A roof is the covering on the uppermost part of a building. A roof protects the building and its contents from the effects of weather. Structures that require roofs range from a letter box to a cathedral or stadium, dwellings being the most numerous....

 causing it to collapse, burning into the nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

. The wall

Wall

A wall is a usually solid structure that defines and sometimes protects an area. Most commonly, a wall delineates a building and supports its superstructure, separates space in buildings into rooms, or protects or delineates a space in the open air...

s and the tower remained standing, but much of the interior was gutted. The church was restored by Sir Albert Richardson

Albert Richardson

Sir Albert Edward Richardson K.C.V.O., F.R.I.B.A, F.S.A., was a leading English architect, teacher and writer about architecture during the first half of the 20th century...

 in 1953.

The Church is currently used to celebrate 'Founder's Day' of Addey and Stanhope School

Addey and Stanhope School

Addey and Stanhope School is a voluntary-aided, co-educational secondary school, located in Lewisham, London, UK. A former grammar school, with origins dating to 1606, Addey and Stanhope became a specialist science and technology school in 2006. The school is also part of the Crossways Federation,...

 and The John Roan School

John Roan school

The John Roan School is a secondary comprehensive school in Greenwich, South London that was a member of The Beacon Schools program.- Location :...

.

Notable burials

Notable burials, in and around the church, include: Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 Thomas Tallis

Thomas Tallis

Thomas Tallis was an English composer. Tallis flourished as a church musician in 16th century Tudor England. He occupies a primary place in anthologies of English church music, and is considered among the best of England's early composers. He is honoured for his original voice in English...

 (d. 1585), General

General

A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

 James Wolfe

James Wolfe

Major General James P. Wolfe was a British Army officer, known for his training reforms but remembered chiefly for his victory over the French in Canada...

 (d. 1759), English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

-born explorer of Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 Henry Kelsey

Henry Kelsey

Henry Kelsey , aka the Boy Kelsey, was an English fur trader, explorer, and sailor who played an important role in establishing the Hudson's Bay Company. Kelsey was born and married in East Greenwich, south-east of central London...

 (d. 1724), and actress Lavinia Fenton

Lavinia Fenton

Lavinia Powlett, Duchess of Bolton , known by her stagename as Lavinia Fenton, was an English actress.She was probably the daughter of a naval lieutenant named Beswick, but she bore the name of her mother's husband. She was thought to have been born in Charring Cross, and had been a child...

 (1760). Noted merchant

Merchant

A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...

, Lloyds underwriter and art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

 collector John Julius Angerstein

John Julius Angerstein

John Julius Angerstein , was a London merchant, Lloyd's under-writer, and patron of the fine arts. The imminent prospect that his collection of paintings was about to be sold by his estate, in 1824, galvanized the founding of the National Gallery, London.Angerstein was born in St Petersburg, Russia...

 (d. 1823) was a churchwarden

Churchwarden

A churchwarden is a lay official in a parish church or congregation of the Anglican Communion, usually working as a part-time volunteer. Holders of these positions are ex officio members of the parish board, usually called a vestry, parish council, parochial church council, or in the case of a...

 there during the early 19th century, and is also buried there.

Literary connection

In Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

's novel Our Mutual Friend

Our Mutual Friend

Our Mutual Friend is the last novel completed by Charles Dickens and is one of his most sophisticated works, combining psychological insight with social analysis. It centres on, in the words of critic J. Hillis Miller, "money, money, money, and what money can make of life" but is also about human...

, Bella Wilfer marries John Rokesmith in St Alfege Church.

External links

• St. Alfege Church Website
• Mystery Worshipper Report at the Ship of Fools website
  Ship of Fools (website)
  Ship of Fools is a UK-based Christian website. It was first launched as a magazine in 1977. The magazine folded in 1983 and was resurrected as a website on April Fool's Day, 1998. Subtitled "the magazine of Christian unrest", Ship of Fools pokes fun and asks critical questions about the Christian...