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St Giles-in-the-Fields
Church of St Giles-in-the-Fields, London
St Giles-in-the-Fields
51°30′55.12″N00°07′43.08″W / 51.5153111°N 0.1286333°W /51.5153111; -0.1286333
Location	St Giles High Street, London, WC2H 8LG
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Traditional Anglican Book of Common Prayer
Website	www.stgilesonline.org
History
Founded	1101
Architecture
Heritage designation	Grade I
Architect	Henry Flitcroft
Style	Palladian
Years built	1731–1733
Administration
Diocese	Diocese of London
Archdeaconry	Charing Cross
Deanery	Westminster St Margaret
Clergy
Rector	Reverend Thomas Sander[1]

St Giles-in-the-Fields is theAnglicanparish church of theSt Giles district ofLondon. The parish stands within theLondon Borough of Camden and forms part of theDiocese of London. The church, named forSt Giles the Hermit, began as the chapel of a 12th-centurymonastery andleper hospital in the fields betweenWestminster and theCity of London and now gives its name to the surrounding urban district ofSt Giles in theWest End of London, situated betweenSeven Dials,Bloomsbury,Holborn andSoho. The present church is the third on the site since 1101 and was rebuilt most recently in 1731–1733 inPalladian style to designs by the architectHenry Flitcroft.

The first recorded church on the site was achapel of theParish of Holborn attached to a monastery and leper hospital founded byMatilda of Scotland, "Good Queen Maud", consort ofHenry I between the years 1101 and 1109.^[2][3][4] The foundation would later become attached as a "cell," or subordinate house, to the larger Hospital of the Lazar Brothers atBurton Lazars, inLeicestershire.^[5] At the time of its founding it stood well outside theCity of London and distant from the RoyalPalace of Westminster, on themain road toTyburn andOxford. Between 1169 and 1189, onMichaelmas,Henry II granted the Hospital the lands, gifts and privileges that were to secure its future. For this he has been credited as a 'second founder'.^[6]

The chapel probably began to function as the church of ahamlet that grew up round the hospital. Although there is no record of any presentation to theliving before the hospital wassuppressed in 1539, the fact that theparish of St. Giles was in existence at least as early as 1222 means that the church was at least partially used for parochial purposes from that time.^[7]

The Precinct of the Hospital probably included the whole of the island site now bounded by High Street,Charing Cross Road andShaftesbury Avenue. As well as the Hospital church which stood on the site of the present St Giles there would have been other buildings connected to the hospital including the Master's House (subsequently called the Mansion House) to the west of the church, and the 'Spittle Houses', dwellings attached to the Hospital on the eastern end of the present churchyard including the Angel Inn, which remains on the same site.^[8]

St Giles's position halfway between the ancient cities ofWestminster andLondon is perhaps no coincidence. AsGeorge Walter Thornbury noted in London Old & New "it is remarkable that in almost every ancient town in England, the church of St. Giles stands either outside the walls, or, at all events, near its outlying parts, in allusion, doubtless, to the arrangements of the Israelites of old, who placed their lepers outside the camp."^[9]

During the 13th century a Papal Bull confirmed the hospital's privileges and granted it special protection under theSee of Rome.^[6] ThePapal Bull reveals that the lepers were trying to live as areligious community and that the Hospital precinct included gardens and 8 acres of land adjoining the Hospital to the north and south. The hospital was supported by the Crown and administered by the City of London for its first 200 years, being known as aRoyal Peculiar.

In 1299,Edward I assigned it toHospital of Burton Lazars inLeicestershire, a house of the order ofSt. Lazarus of Jerusalem, achivalric order from the era of theCrusades.^[4] The 14th century was turbulent for the hospital, with frequent accusations of corruption and mismanagement from the City and Crown authorities and suggestions that members of the Order of Saint Lazarus (known asLazar brothers) put the affairs of the monastery ahead of caring for the lepers.^[4] In 1348 The Citizens contended to the King that since the Master and brothers of Burton Lazars had taken over St. Giles's the friars had ousted the lepers and replaced them by brothers and sisters of the Order of St. Lazarus, who were not diseased and ought not to associate with those who were.^[10] The Hospital appears to have been governed by a Warden, who was subordinate to the Master of Burton Lazars. The King intervened on several occasions and appointed a new head of the hospital.^[4]

Eventually, in 1391,Richard II sold the hospital, chapel and lands to theCistercian abbey ofSt Mary de Graces by theTower of London. This was opposed by the Lazars and their new Master, Walter Lynton, who responded by leading a group of armed men to St Giles, recapturing it by force^[11] and by the City of London, which withheld rent money in protest.^[4] During this occupation the Order of St Lazarus opposed with armed force a visitation by theArchbishop of Canterbury and many important documents and records were lost or destroyed.^[6] The dispute was finally settled peacefully in court with the King claiming he had been misled about the ownership of St Giles and recognising Lynton as legal 'Master of St Giles Hospital' and the Hospital of Burton Lazarus^[11] with the Cistercian sale being formally revoked in 1402 and the property returned to the Lazar Brothers.^[4]

The property at the time included 8 acres (32,000 m²) of farmland and a survey-enumerated eight horses, twelve oxen, two cows, 156 pigs, 60 geese and 186 domestic fowl.^[4] Lepers were cared for there until the mid-16th century, when the disease abated and the monastery took to caring for indigents instead.^[4]

The Precinct of the Hospital probably included the whole of the site now bounded bySt Giles High Street,Charing Cross Road andShaftesbury Avenue; it was entered by aGatehouse in St Giles High Street.^[12]

In 1414, St Giles Fields served as the centre ofSir John Oldcastle's abortive proto-ProtestantLollard uprising directed against theCatholic Church and the English king Henry V. In anticipation ofProtestantism, Lollard beliefs were outlined in the 1395The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards which dealt with, among other things, their opposition tocapital punishment, rejection ofreligious celibacy and belief that members of theclergy should be held accountable to civil laws. RebelLollards answered a summons to assemble among the 'dark thickets'^[13] by St. Giles's Fields on the night ofJan. 9, 1414. The King, however, was forewarned by his agents and the small group ofLollards in assembly were captured or dispersed. The rebellion brought severe reprisals and marked the end of theLollards' overt political influence after many of the captured rebels were brutally executed. Of their number, 38 weredragged on hurdles through the streets fromNewgate to St Giles on January 12 and hanged side by side in batches of four while the bodies of the seven who had been formally condemned asheretics by theCatholic Church were burned afterwards. Four more were hanged a week later. Finally, on 14 December 1417Sir John Oldcastle himself washanged in chains andburnt 'gallows and all' in St Giles Fields.^[14]

The famous scene of the meeting of the Lollards at St Giles Fields was later memorialised byLord Tennyson in his poemSir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham:^[15]

What did he say,
My frighted Wiclif-preacher whom I crost
In flying hither? that one night a crowd
Throng'd the waste field about the city gates:
The king was on them suddenly with a host.
Why there? they came to hear their preacher.

Under the reignHenry VIII, in 1536, the hospital's ownership of certain parcels of land was disputed by the King's commissioners and as a result it was stripped of almost all the lands gifted by parishioners and benefactors since its foundation. This included over 45 acres of St Giles Parish itself^[6] and the avowdson of the ancient parish of St Dunstan'sFeltham, which was among the earliest gifts to the Hospital^[16][6] which were all handed over to the Crown. All this, however, merely anticipated the momentous events of 1544 when the entire hospital, along with the Hospital of Burton St Lazar, was finallydissolved^[4] with all the Hospital lands, rights and privileges, excluding the chapel, being granted to the kingJohn Dudley, Lord Lisle in 1548.^[4] The chapel survived as the local parish church, the firstRector of St Giles being appointed in 1547 when the phrase "in the fields" was first added to the name to distinguish it from St Giles Cripplegate.^[3][6]

Perhaps nothing remains of the medieval church of St Giles however we can reconstruct something of its appearance from the historical record.

According to an order of the Vestry of 8 August 1623, the medieval parish church stood 153 feet by 65 feet and consisted of a nave and a chancel, both with pillars and clerestory walls above and with aisles on either side. in the 46th year of Henry III or 1262 there is a record of a bequest by Robert of Portpool to the Hospital chapel providing for the maintenance of a chaplain "to celebrate perpetually divine service in the chapel of St. Michael within the hospital church of S. Giles.".^[17] Thus we may surmise that the church building was of a tripartite structure likely consisting of side aisles supported on rounded Norman arches and lit by clerestory windows above, leading to separate chapels dedicated to St Michael and St Giles on either side of the central nave which lead to a chancel separated from the body of the church by a rood screen.^[6]

There is a further indication, in the Vestry minutes of 21 April 1617, that there was a sort of round tower,^[5] spirelet or conical bell turret at the western end of the structure.^[18]

Intriguingly, the other remaining medieval relic of the order ofSt. Lazarus of Jerusalem in England, the 12th-century Church of St James, which now serves as the parish church ofBurton Lazars,Leicestershire, appears quite closely to resemble the description of what St Giles may have looked like in its medieval state.^[19]

140 years after Oldcastle's rising, St Giles was the scene of another act of public treason when it played host to theBabington Plot.

The issuance of thepapal bullRegnans in Excelsis byPope Pius V on 25 February 1570 had granted English Catholics licence to overthrow theProtestant English queen and in 1585 a cell ofrecusants,crypto-Catholics andJesuit priests hatched a plan in the precincts of St Giles to murderQueen Elizabeth I and invite a Spanish invasion of England with the purpose of replacing her with CatholicQueen Mary.

The chief conspirators in the plot wereAnthony Babington andJohn Ballard. Babington, a young gentleman ofDerbyshire, was recruited by Ballard, aJesuit priest and Roman Catholic missionary who hoped to do away with the 'heretic' Queen Elizabeth and rescue the Scottish Queen Mary from her imprisonment atFotheringhay Castle.

The plot was quickly uncovered by Queen Elizabeth's spymasterFrancis Walsingham and used by him as a means to entrap Mary. The plan was conceived in talks in held at St Giles's Fields and the taverns of the parish and thus, when the plot was finally exposed, the conspirators were returned to St Giles churchyard to behanged, drawn, and quartered.

Ballard and Babington were executed on 20 September 1586 along with the other men who had been tried with them. Such was the public outcry at the horror of their execution that Elizabeth changed the order for the second group to be allowed to hang until "quite dead" before disembowelling and quartering.

The fact that Babington had solicited a letter from Mary Queen of Scots expressing tacit approval for the plot led to her execution on 8 February 1587.^[20]

The exposure of the plot and the role of the Catholic church in fomenting rebellion was to stoke anti-Catholic reaction in the century to come.^[21]

By the second decade of the 17th century, the medieval church had suffered a series of collapses, and the parishioners decided to erect a new church, which was begun 1623 and completed in 1630.^[7] It was consecrated on 26 January 1630. mostly paid for by theDuchess of Dudley, wife ofSir Robert Dudley.^[3] The 'poor players ofThe Cockpit theatre' were also said to have contributed a sum of £20 towards the new church building.^[22] The new church was handsomely appointed and sumptuously furnished. 123 feet long and the breadth 57 wide with a steeple in rubbed brick, galleries adorning the north and south aisles with a great east window ofcoloured and painted glass.

The new building was consecrated byWilliam Laud,Bishop of London.^[3] An illuminated list of subscribers to the rebuilding is still kept in the church.^[3]

The ruptures in church and state which would eventually lead to theCivil War were felt early in St Giles Parish. In 1628 the first rector of the newly consecrated church,Roger Maynwaring was fined and deprived of his clerical functions by order of Parliament after twosermons, given on 4 May, which were considered to have impugned the rights of Parliament and advocated for theDivine Right of theStuart Kings.^[13]

The controversy would be continued into the 1630s whenArchbishop Laud's former chaplain, William Heywood, was installed as Rector. It was Heywood, under Laud's patronage, who began to ornament and decorate St Giles in theHigh Church,Laudian fashion and to alter the ceremonial of the sacraments. This provoked the Protestant (particularlyPuritan) parishioners of St Giles to present Parliament with a petition listing and enumerating the 'popish reliques' with which Heywood had set up 'at needless expense to the parish'^[13] as well as the 'Superstitious and Idolatrous manner of administration of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper'.^[23] The offending ceremonial was closely described by the parishioners in their complaint to parliament:

"They [the Clergy] enter into the Sanctum Sanctorum in which place they reade their second Service, and it is divided into three parts, which is acted by them all three, with change of place, and many duckings before the Altar, with divers Tones in their Voyces, high and low, with many strange actions by their hands, now up then downe, This being ended, the Doctor takes the Cups from the Altar and delivers them to one of the Subdeacons who placeth' them upon a side Table, Then the Doctor kneeleth to the Altar, but what he doth we know not, nor what hee meaneth by it. . .^[23]

At this time the interior was heavily furnished by Heywood and provided with numerousornaments, many of which were the gift ofAlice Dudley, Duchess of Dudley. Chief among them was an elaboratescreen of carved oak placed where one had formerly stood in the medieval church. This, as described in the petition to Parliament in 1640, was "in the figure of a beautiful gate, in which is carved two large pillars, and three large statues: on the one side isPaul, with his sword; on the otherBarnabas, with his book; and over themPeter with his keyes. They are all set above with wingedcherubims, and beneath supported by lions."Elaborate and expensivealtar rails would have separated thealtar from congregation. This ornamental balustrade extended the full width of thechancel and stood 7 or 8 feet east of the screen at the top of three steps while the altar stood close up to the east wall paved with marble.^[7]

The result of the parishioners' petition to Parliament was that most of the ornaments were stripped and sold in 1643, while Lady Dudley was still alive.^[7]

Dr Heywood was still the incumbent at the time of the outbreak of theEnglish Civil War in 1642. As well as Rector of St Giles he had, of course, been a domestic chaplain toArchbishop Laud, chaplain in ordinary toKing Charles I andprebendary atSt Paul's Cathedral. All this marked him out for special attention after the execution of the King and during theCommonwealth period he was imprisoned and suffered many hardships.^[24] Heywood was forced to flee London, residing inWiltshire until theRestoration of the monarchy in 1660 when he was finally re-instated to the living of St Giles.^[24]

In 1645 the parish notes record the erection of a copy of theSolemn League and Covenant in the nave of the church and in 1650, a year after theexecution of the King, with the fall of the monarchy seemingly irreversibly settled, an order was given for the 'taking down of the Kings Arms' in the church and the clear-glazing of the windows in the nave.^[13]

Following the interregnum, in 1660,Charles II wasrapturously received back into London and the bells of St Giles were pealed for three days.^[13]Royalism was at its highest pitch.William Heywood was reinstated to his living at St Giles for a short period before being succeeded by theDr Robert Boreman, previouslyClerk of the Green Cloth toCharles I and a fellow deprived Royalist. Revd. Boreman is remembered best for his bitter exchange withRichard Baxter theNonconformist leader and occasional parishioner of St Giles.^[25]

In 1675Dr. John Sharp was appointed to the position of Rector by the influence and patronage ofHeneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham andLord Keeper of the Great Seal. Sharp's father had been a prominentBradfordianpuritan who enjoyed the favour ofThomas Fairfax and inculcated him inCalvinist,Low Church, doctrines, while his mother, being strongRoyalist, instructed him in the liturgy of theBook of Common Prayer. Thus he could be seen as bridging the divide within the reformed religion in England.

Sharp became deeply committed to his ministry at St Giles and indeed later declined the more profitable benefice ofSt Martin in the Fields so as to continue ministering to the poor and turbulent parish of St Giles.^[26]

The Rector would spend the next sixteen years reforming and reconstituting the parish from the disorder of the post-civil-war period. Hepreached regularly (at least twice every Sunday at St Giles as well as weekly in other city churches) and with "much fluency, piety [and] gravity", becoming, according toBishop Burnet "one of the most popular preachers of the age". Sharp completely re-ordered the system of worship at St Giles around the Established Liturgy of theBook Of Common Prayer, a liturgy he considered "almost perfectly designed".^[27] He instituted, perhaps for the first time, a weeklyHoly Communion and restored theDaily Offices in the church.^[27] Sharp also insisted upon communicants kneeling to receive communion.

In the wider parish he was constant in hiscatechising of young people and in performingvisitations of the sick, often at the hazard of his own life. Somehow he avoided serious illness despite "bear[ing] his share of duty among the cellars and the garrets"^[26] of a district already synonymous with plague and sickness. Indeed, his solicitude for his parishioners left him at risk in many ways. He once survived an attempted assassination byJacobite agents constructed around the pretence of luring him to visit a dying parishioner. He attended with an armed servant and the "parishioner" staged an "instant recovery".^[26]

In 1685 Sharp was tasked by the Lord Mayor with drawing up for theGrand Jury of London their address of congratulations on the accession ofJames II and on 20 April 1686 he becamechaplain in ordinary to the King. However, provoked by the subversion of his parishioners' faith by Jesuit priests and Jacobite agents, Sharp preached two sermons at St. Giles on 2 and 9 May, which were held to reflect adversely on the King's religious policy. As a result,Henry Compton,bishop of London, was ordered by theLord President of the Council, to summarily suspend Sharp from his position at St Giles. Compton refused, but in an interview atDoctors' Commons on 18 May privately advised Sharp to "forbear the pulpit" for the present. On 1 July, by the advice ofJudge Jeffreys, he left London forNorwich; but when he returned to London in December his petition, revised by Jeffreys, was received, and in January 1687 he was reinstated.

In August 1688 Sharp was again in trouble. After refusing to read thedeclaration of indulgence he summoned before theecclesiastical commission of James II. He argued that though obedience was due to the king in preference to the archbishop, yet that obedience went no further than what was legal and honest. After theGlorious Revolution he visited the imprisoned'Bloody' Jeffreys in theTower of London and attempted to bring him to penitence and consolation for his crimes.

Soon after theRevolution Sharp preached before thePrince of Orange (soon to beKing William III) and three days later before theConvention Parliament. On each occasion he included prayers for King James II on the ground that the lords had not yet concurred in theabdication. On 7 September 1689 he was nameddean of Canterbury succeedingJohn Tillotson. He was installed as Archbishopric of York in 1691.

TheBubonic Plague orBlack Death had first appeared in London in 1348 and persisted recurrently for the next 318 years with the outbreaks of 1362, 1369, 1471, 1479 proving particularly severe.^[28]

St.Giles's parish enjoys the unfortunate distinction of having originated last and most severe instance of the plague in London, between 1665 and 1666, a period that has become known as theGreat Plague of London.Daniel Defoe records that the first persons to catch the disease were members of a family living at the top ofDrury Lane, 350 yards from the St Giles church. Two Frenchmen staying with a local family caught ill of the plague there and quickly died:

...the latter end of November or the beginning of December 1664 when two men, said to be Frenchmen, died of the plague in Long Acre, or rather at the upper end of Drury Lane^[29]

By 7 June 1665 the diaristSamuel Pepys noticed in the parish of St Giles, for the first time, the dreaded scarletPlague Cross painted on the doors of the dead and dying:

I did in Drury-lane see two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the doors, and "Lord have mercy upon us" writ there - which was a sad sight to me, being the first of that kind that to my remembrance I ever saw.^[30]

By September 1665, 8,000 people were dying a week in London and by the end of the plague year it had claimed an estimated 100,000 people—almost a quarter ofLondon's population, in 18 months.^[31][32]

By the end of the plague there had been a total 3,216 listed plague deaths in a St Giles parish which had fewer than 2,000 listed households. This is almost certainly an underestimate, however, as the non-reporting of deaths to avoid quarantine measures was widespread. By the end of 1666 the mortal remains of over 1000 parishioners had been deposited in the plague pit in St Giles churchyard with many other corpses being sent to pits atGolden Square and a site which is now at the corner of Marshall Street andBeak Street in Soho.^[33][34]

Saint Giles in the Fields Rebuilding Act 1717
Act of Parliament
Parliament of Great Britain
Long title	An act to impower the commissioners appointed to put in execution the acts of the ninth and tenth years of her late Majesty's reign, for building fifty new churches in and about the cities of London and Westminfter, and suburbs thereof, to direct the parish church of St. Giles in the Fields in the county of Middlesex to be rebuilt, instead of one of the said fifty new churches.
Citation	4 Geo. 1. c. 14
Territorial extent	Great Britain
Dates
Royal assent	21 March 1718
Commencement	21 November 1717[a]
Repealed	31 January 2013
Other legislation
Repealed by	Statute Law (Repeals) Act 2013
Relates to	New Churches in London and Westminster Act 1710 Churches in London and Westminster Act 1711
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The high number of plague victims buried in and around the church were the probable cause of a damp problem evident by 1711.^[3] The excessive number of burials in the parish had led to the churchyard rising as much as eight feet above the nave floor.^[36] The parishioners petitioned theCommission for Building Fifty New Churches for a grant to rebuild. Initially refused as it was not a new foundation and the Act was intended for new parishes in under-churched areas, the parish was eventually allocated £8,000 (around £1.2 million adjusted for 2023 prices)^[37] and a new church was built in 1730–1734, designed by architectHenry Flitcroft in thePalladian style.^[3] The first stone was laid by theBishop of Norwich onMichaelmas, 29 September 1731.^[36]

TheFlitcroft rebuilding represents a shift from theBaroque to thePalladian form of church building in England and has been described as 'one of the least known but most significant episodes inGeorgian church design, standing at a crucial crossroads of radical architectural change and representing nothing less than the firstPalladian Revival church to be erected in London...".^[36]Nicholas Hawksmoor had been an early choice to design the new church building at St Giles but tastes had begun to turn against his freewheelingmannerist style (his recent work on the nearbySt George's Bloomsbury was strongly criticised).^[36] Instead the young and inexperiencedHenry Flitcroft was chosen and he would take as his inspiration and guide theCaroline buildings ofInigo Jones rather than the work ofWren,Hawksmoor orJames Gibbs.^[36] Only in the matter of thespire of the church, for whichPalladio had no model, did Flitcroft borrow as his model the steeple ofJames Gibbs'sSt Martin's in the Fields but even then, in altering theOrder and preferring a solid, belted summit, he made it all his own.^[36] Thewooden model he made so that parishioners could see what they were commissioning, can still be seen in the church's northtransept. TheVestry House was built at the same time.^[3]

As London grew in the 18th and 19th centuries, so did the parish's population, eventually reaching 30,000 by 1831 which suggests an extremely high density.^[3] It included two neighbourhoods noted for poverty and squalor: the St GilesRookery between the church andGreat Russell Street, and theSeven Dials north ofLong Acre.^[3] These became a centre for criminality and prostitution and the name St Giles became associated with the underworld, gambling houses and the consumption of gin.St Giles's Roundhouse was a gaol andSt Giles' Greek athieves' cant. As the population grew, so did their dead, and eventually there was no room in the graveyard: many burials of parishioners (including the architectSir John Soane) in the 18th and 19th centuries took place outside the parish in the churchyard ofSt Pancras old church

John Wesley, the English cleric, theologian, and evangelist and leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known asMethodism is believed to have preached occasionally atEvening Prayer at St Giles from the large pulpit dating from 1676 which survived the rebuild and, indeed, is still in use today. Also retained in the church is a smaller whitewashed box-pulpit originally belonging to the nearbyWest Street Chapel used by both John andCharles Wesley to preach the Gospel.^[38]

The dissolute nature of the area in the middle part of the 19th century is described inCharles Dickens'Sketches by Boz.

ArchitectsSir Arthur Blomfield andWilliam Butterfield made minor alterations to the church interior in 1875 and 1896.^[3]

Although St Giles escaped direct bombing hits in theSecond World War, high explosives still destroyed most of its Victorian stained glass and the roof of the nave was severely damaged.^[3] The Vestry house was filled with rubble and the churchyard was fenced with chicken wire, while the Rectory on Great Russell Street had been entirely destroyed. The Parish itself was in as parlous a state with the theft of the PCC funds and the surrounding area ruined and parishioners dispersed by war. Into this position the Revd Gordon Taylor was appointed Rector and set about energetically rebuilding the church and parish.

The church was designated a Grade Ilisted building on 24 October 1951^[39] and Revd. Gordon Taylor raised funds for a major restoration of the church undertaken between 1952 and 1953. It adhered closely to Flitcroft's original intentions, on which theGeorgian Group andRoyal Fine Art Commission were consulted^[40] The resulting works were praised by the journalist and poetJohn Betjeman as "one of the most successful post-war church restorations" (Spectator 9 March 1956).^[3]

Revd. Gordon Taylor slowly rebuilt the congregation, refurbished the St Giles'sAlmshouses and reinvigorated the ancient parochial charities. He also worked successfully with Austen Williams ofSt Martin-in-the-Fields to defeat the comprehensive redevelopment ofCovent Garden, stopping the construction of a major road planned to run through the parish, which would have involved the demolition of the Almshouses and the destruction of this historic quarter of London, personally giving evidence before the public inquiry.^[41]

After initially welcoming the liturgical and pastoral innovations of the 1960s Rev. Taylor eventually came to see himself and St Giles as defenders and custodians of the traditions of theChurch of England, the Established Liturgy and the use of theBook of Common Prayer which he maintained in the Parish with the support of thePCC.^[41]

The original churchyard and burying place lies to the south of the church building on the site of the original burial yard of the Leper Hospital.^[42] Although barely an acre in extent, the churchyard holds many thousands of bodies spanning the centuries, buried on top of each other. Parishioners whose relatives could not afford ro pay for a decent funeral for them were chiefly interred in large communal pits dug around churchyard known as 'Poor Holes'.^[43] Due to overcrowding, the churhyard was periodically enlarged. In 1628 a plot of land named Brown's Gardens was added to the churchyard.

The decayed condition of the churchyard has mirrored that of the parish for much of its history and the treatment of the indigent dead was, apparently, often lacking in delicacy. A 19th-century historian of London's burial grounds described conditions at the beginning of that century thus:

It was always damp, and vast numbers of the poor Irish were buried in it (the ground having been originally consecrated by a Roman Catholic)...it is hardly to be wondered at that the parish of St. Giles’ enjoys the honour of having started the plague of 1665. The practices carried on there at the beginning of this century were equal to the worst anywhere revolting ill-treatment of the dead was the daily custom.

In 1803, an additional burial-ground, two miles distant, adjoining that ofSt. Pancras Old Church was purchased, where the St Giles parishionerSir John Soane is buried, now known as St. Pancras Gardens.

As noted above, the Churchyard of St Giles may be said to enjoy a particular significance and reverence in the hearts and minds ofRoman Catholics. One such has gone as far as to describe it as "London's most Hallowed Space".^[44] As the ground was originally consecrated by the Roman church and, indeed, later placed under the special protection ofPope Alexander IV it is still considered "hallowed ground" and thus qualified as an acceptable place of burial for and by Roman Catholics, particularly during the time of thepenal laws^[44]

in England. It has therefore been the burial place of a number of distinguished Roman Catholics since theReformation as well as many thousands of poor and nameless Irish Catholic immigrants to London.^[42]

During the religious conflicts of the 17th century a number of notable Roman Catholic figures were interred there includingJohn Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse,Richard Penderel andJames Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater (executed atTower Hill after the failure of theJacobite Rebellion of 1715)

A number of Roman Catholic priests andlaymen, executed forHigh Treason on the false testimony ofTitus Oates during the fictitious conspiracy and panic known as thePopish Plot, were buried near the church's north wall following their executions:^[3]These included

• Oliver Plunkett,Archbishop of Armagh, buried (according to the parish register) on 1 July 1681, but exhumed in 1683 and taken toLamspringe Abbey in Germany. Later it was moved again. His head went to Rome, was then given to the Archbishop of Armagh, and is now atDrogheda. His body rests atDownside Abbey, Somerset.
• The fiveJesuit fathers with whom Plunkett asked to be buried:
  • Thomas Whitbread,^[45]William Harcourt,John Fenwick,John Gavan andAnthony Turner (martyr)
• Edward Coleman (orColman), secretary to theDuchess of York
• Richard Langhorne, barrister^[46]
• Edward Micó, priest, who died soon after arrest. He was the only one of the twelve martyrs not to be executed at Tyburn.
• William Ireland, kinsman ofRichard Penderel.
• John Grove, priest^[47]
• Thomas Pickering, lay brother^[48]

All 12 were laterbeatified byPope Pius XI while Oliver Plunkett was canonised byPope Paul VI in 1975.

A memorial for the seven Jesuits and all those buried within the churchyard was unveiled on 20 January 2019.^[49]

Fr Lawrence Lew O.P. of theRoman Catholic Diocese of Westminster has described the place thus:

The churchyard of St Giles may appear to the casual passer-by as a convenient green space to sit down, enjoy a sandwich and catch up with the social media. In actual fact it is one of London's most hallowed spots, with the remains of eleven beatified martyrs hidden beneath the ground, silently witnessing to the faith and awaiting the day of resurrection.^[44]

Not many chest tombs survive in situ in St Giles Churchyard however, standing among the bushes at the south corner of the east end of the church is the tomb ofRichard Penderel, the humbleWest CountryYeoman instrumental in the deliverance of KingCharles II after theBattle of Worcester in 1651.^[50] Penderel sheltered and disguised the King in his own home before secreting him high in the branches of theRoyal Oak to evade his pursuers. Penderel and his five brothers later escorted the king on the first stage of his perilousescape to France.

Upon theRestoration Penderel was rewarded with a handsome pension and visitedcourt once a year, lodging atGreat Turnstile offLincolns Inn. Here in February 1671–2 he caught and died of the "St Giles Fever" and was buried beneath a splendid chest tomb. The tomb was "repaired and beautified" by order ofGeorge II in 1739 but later fell into decay.

The inscription on the side of the tomb is still faintly visible and reads:

Here lieth Richard Pendrell, Preserver and Conductor to his sacred Majesty King Charles the Second of Great Britain, after his Escape from Worcester Fight, in the Year 1651, who died Feb. 8, 1671.
Hold, Passenger, here's shrouded in this Herse,
Unparalell'd Pendrell, thro’ the Universe.
Like when the Eastern Star From Heaven gave Light
To three lost Kings; so he, in such dark Night,
To Britain's Monarch, toss'd by adverse War,
On Earth appear'd, a Second Eastern Star,
A Pope, a Stern, in her rebellious Main,
A Film to her Royal Sovereign.
Now to triumph in Heav'n's eternal Sphere,
He's hence advanc'd, for his just Steerage here;
Whilst Albion's Chronicles, with matchless Fame,
Embalm the Story of great Pendrell's Name.

In 1922 the tomb slab, by now deteriorating in its exposed position, was removed inside the church and is now mounted in the west end of the church building alongside the famous Royalist hero ofEdgehill,Newbury andNaseby,John Lord Belasyse.^[51]

At the western end of the churchyard facing Flitcroft Street stands the Resurrection Gate, a grandlychgate in theDoric order. It formerly stood on the north side of the churchyard, to be gazed upon by the condemned prisoner on his way to execution atTyburn.^[52]

The Gate is adorned with abas-relief of theDay of Judgement. The carving is probably the work of a wood-carver named Mr Love and was commissioned in 1686 when directions were given by the vestry to erect "a substantial gate out of the wall of the churchyard near the round house".

Rowland Dobie, in his "History of St. Giles'", states that "the composition is, with various alterations, taken fromMichael Angelo'sLast Judgment however Mr. J. T. Smith, in his "Book for a Rainy Day", says of the carving that it was "borrowed, not from Michael Angelo, but from the workings of the brain of some ship-carver".^[53]

The Gate was rebuilt in 1810 to the designs of the architect and churchwarden of St Giles William Leverton^[54] and, In 1865, being unsafe, it was taken down and carefully re-erected opposite the west door in anticipation of the re-routing ofCharing Cross Road. As it happened Charing Cross road bypassed Flitcroft Street and now the gate faces onto a narrow alleyway.^[55]

St Giles has in recent times come to be referred to as the "Poets' Church"^[56][57] on account of connections to several poets and dramatists, actors and translators beginning in the 16th century. Indeed, the second church on the site was at least partially funded by the 'poor players of theCockpit Theatre', presumablyQueen Henrietta's Men, who gave £20 to the rebuilding in 1630.^[58]

An early post-reformation Rector,Nathaniel Baxter was both clergyman and poet. In earlier life he had been tutor toSir Philip Sidney, and interested in the manner of Sidney's circle in literature andRamist logic. He is now remembered for his lengthy philosophical poem of 1606, "Sir Philip Sydney'sOurania".

Another poet philosopher of the period buried at St Giles isEdward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury (died 1648),.^[22] Edward, brother of the Christian poetGeorge Herbert published his controversial metaphysical treatiseDe Veritate in 1624 on the advice of the philosopherHugo Grotius (it remains on the Catholicindex of forbidden books). Herbert's lyric poetry is generally admired and he is supposed to have inspiredTennyson's adoption of theiambic terameter in his poem "In Memoriam".

A stonestele in north aisle of the church commemorates the great Englishdramatist,translator andpoetGeorge Chapman (1559 – London, 12 May 1634). AClassical Scholar in his own right, Chapman published the first complete English translation of the works ofHomer which was the most popular in the English language and was the way most English speakers encountered these poems until the translations ofAlexander Pope. Chapman also translated theHomeric Hymns, theGeorgics ofVirgil,The Works ofHesiod (1618, dedicated toFrancis Bacon), theHero and Leander ofMusaeus (1618) and theFifth Satire ofJuvenal (1624).

Chiefly, however, Chapman wrote masques, comedies and tragedies. These included one of the most successfulmasques of theJacobean era,The Memorable Masque of the Middle Temple and Lincoln's Inn and the tragedyBussy D'Ambois (1607) Chapman also collaborated with bothJohn Marston andBen Jonson when creating the comedyEastward Ho! (1605) which earned him a spell in theFleet Prison for insulting the King's Scottish courtiers.^[59]

Chapman is perhaps equally famous in our own time as forming part of the subject ofJohn Keats's sonnet'On first looking into Chapman's Homer' and as being a proposed candidate for theRival Poet mentioned inShakespearesSonnets.^[60] Chapman's memorial was designed and paid for byInigo Jones who produced the masques to Chapman's texts as, due to a failure to successfully secure a patron, Chapman died in dire poverty.^[61]

St Giles' connection with poetry and the stage continued throughout the 17th century both before and after theclosure of the theatres by Parliament and, like much else in the parish, revived at the restoration of the Monarchy.James Shirley andThomas Nabbes both writers ofmasques, city comedies and historicaltragedies enjoyed a long connection with the church and parish and both are buried within the churchyard. Shirley was perhaps the most prolific and highly regarded dramatist of the reign ofKing Charles I,^[62] writing 31 plays, 3 masques, and 3 moral allegories. He was known in his day for his comedies of fashionable London life in the 1630s but is perhaps best known today for his poem 'Death the Leveller' taken from hisContention of Ajax and Ulysses which begins:

The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.

Also buried in the churchyard wasMichael Mohun, a leading English actor both before and after the 1642–60 closing of the theatres.^[22] Beginning his career as aboy player in the child troupe known asBeestons boys he went to specialise in the role of archvillains, becoming famous for hisIago and as the lead in Ben Jonson'sVolpone. He also made his own the role of Bellamente in the playLove's Cruelty written by his fellow St Giles parishioner,James Shirley.

The politician, Protestant pamphleteer,metaphysical poet and MP for Kingston upon Hull,Andrew Marvell (died 1678) is buried and memorialised in St Giles. Marvell's association with St Giles was at once personal, political and poetic largely through his rivalry with a fellow parishioner. Marvell was at one time invited to compose his ‘Two Songs’^[63] as entertainment for the wedding ofMary Cromwell (1637–1712), theLord Protector's third daughter, andThomas Belasyse, second Viscount Fauconberg (1627–1700). Viscount Fauconberg, later 1st Earl Fauconberg was the nephew of the greatRoyalist general and founder of theSealed Knot,John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse^[64] (also buried at St Giles) and it was Cromwell's hope that this marriage, fittingly memorialised by the great Marvell, could unify the nation around his regime and succession.

Cromwell went so far in his courtship of the Belasyse family as to permit the use of the Anglican liturgy and the Book of Common Prayer at the marriage service.

Upon the Restoration of the monarchy, the Roman Catholic Belasyse family reaped the rewards ofLoyalty and John was madeGovernor of Hull where he wasted no time in attempting to have the suspect Marvell's Parliamentary seat declared vacant in 1663, on the grounds of his absence in Holland^[65] 15 years later the Marvell would repay the favour with his anonymous pamphletAn Account of Popery and Arbitrary Government (1678) which would contribute to the atmosphere ofAnti Catholic paranoia that led to the impeachment and imprisonment in theTower of the Five Catholic Lords, one of whom was his fellow parishioner,John Belasyse.

Belasyse would spend five years imprisoned in the Tower, without trial, before his eventual release. This period, which coincided with thePopish Plot, reached its grisly degringolade in the trial and execution of 12 Jesuits and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Armagh,Oliver Plunkett who were all buried in St Giles Churchyard not far from both Marvell and Belasyse.

The translator, fabulist, pamphleteer and last Surveyor of the Press in England,Sir Roger L' Estrange is buried and memorialised at St Giles. He was both Surveyor and Licenser of the Press until 1672 - effectively a national literary censor. He earned the title of "Bloodhound of the Press" thanks to his careful monitoring and control of nonconformist ideas and opinions.

L'Estrange succeeded not only in checking seditious publications, but also in limiting political controversy and reducing debate. Besides his official duties L'estrange published translations ofSeneca the Younger'sMorals andCicero'sOffices as well an acclaimed English translation ofThe works ofFlavius Josephus. Additionally he wrote a 'Key' toHudibras, the great satirical poem of the Civil Wars.

L'Estrange's masterwork, however, was the first English translation of Aesop's fables intended specifically for children.^[66] This may be one of the very earliest works of children's literature, coming only two years after Locke's influentialEssay Concerning Human Understanding which posited the idea of children as a 'blank slate' and the subsequent desirability of provide them with "easy pleasant books" to develop their minds rather than simply beating them.

Despite his own achievements as a translator and fabulist, Sir Roger is perhaps most often remembered for attempting to suppress the following lines from Book I of Milton'sParadise Lost, for potentially impugning the King's majesty:

As when the Sun new ris'n
Looks through the Horizontal misty Air
Shorn of his Beams, or from behind the Moon
In dim Eclips disastrous twilight sheds
On half the Nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes Monarchs

Although he has been viewed unsympathetically by posterity for his perceived bigotry and anti-republican paranoia he was, at least in his own eyes, vindicated by the discovery and foiling of theRye House Plot in 1683.^[67] He was also an early disbeliever in the fictitiousPopish Plot. He is also credited with introducing the expressionsWhig andTory into English political language^[68]

The PoetJohn Milton's daughter Mary was baptised in the second church building at St Giles in 1647; whilst the daughter ofLord Byron, Clara, and the children of the poetPercy Shelley andMary Wollstonecraft Godwin were all baptised in the present St Giles church font.

In a poignant meeting of minds in the context of St Giles, Shelley would later quote a verse ofGeorge Chapman's (buried at St Giles) at the beginning of his poemThe Revolt of Islam inhomage within his dedicatory preface to his wife:

There is no danger to a man, that knows
What life and death is: there's not any law
Exceeds his knowledge; neither is it lawful
That he should stoop to any other law.

ThePoetry Society holds its annual general meeting in St Giles Vestry House.

By at least the early 15th century the chief site ofpublic execution in London was moved from the Elms atSmithfield to the northwest corner of the wall of the hospital of St Giles (now the junction of Flitcroft Street andDenmark Street) where a gallows was erected. It became the custom of the Hospital to present the condemned man with a draughtstrong ale, described in a later ballad as a'broad wooden bowl' of 'nutty brown ale'^[69] to ease his passing into the next life. This became known as the 'St Giles Bowl'. After the dissolution of the Hospital and the further moving of the site of execution to the newly built triple gallows at Tyburn the custom was kept up by thechurchwardens of St Giles.^[5]

In hisSurvey of London of 1598, the antiquarianJohn Stow remarked "At this hospital the prisoners conveyed from the City of London towards Tyburn, there to be executed for treasons, felonies or other trespasses, were presented with a great bowl of ale, thereof to drink at their pleasure, as to be their last refreshing in this life".^[70]Walter Thornbury later remarked in London Old and New that "there is scarcely an execution at "Tyburn Tree," recorded in the "Newgate Calendar," in which the fact is not mentioned that the culprit called at apublic-houseen route for a parting draught".^[5]

The "public house" mentioned appears to have been on the current site of theAngel (it is confusingly named The Crown in many ballads and stories) now owned bySamuel Smith's brewery of Tadcaster. The earliest documented reference to the Angel Inn comes at the time dissolution of the Hospital of St Giles in 1539 when the Inn was transferred to Miss Katherine Legh, later Lady Mountjoy.^[71] At the time of the rebuilding of the Angel In 1873, the LondonCity Press reported that:

[A]nother memorial of ancient London was about to pass away, namely, the "Angel" Inn, at St. Giles's, the "half-way house" on the road to Tyburn—the house at whichJack Ketch and the criminal who was about to expiate his offence on the scaffold were wont to stop on their way to the gallows for a "last glass." Mr. W. T. Purkiss, the proprietor, however, was prevailed upon to stay the work of demolition for a time.^[5]

Many famous felons and highwaymen took the St Giles Bowl at the sign of the Angel including John Cottington 'Mulsack' who picked Cromwell's pocket,^[72]John Nevison 'Swift-Neck', and'Handsome' Tom Cox who robbed the Kings Jester,Thomas Killgrew.^[69] Perhaps the most famous scene to occur over the St Giles Bowl was the procession of the thief and popular hero'Honest Jack' Sheppard to Tyburn accompanied by as many as 200,000 citizens.^[73] According to one fictionalised telling, Sheppard refused the Bowl and instead pledged that his persecutor, the corrupt thief takerJonathon Wild, would taste of the cup within six months.^[74] Six months later Wild was executed for theft at Tyburn.^[75]

The Victorian historical novelistWilliam Harrison Ainsworth composed aballad anddrinking song on the history of the St Giles Cup beginning:

Where Saint Giles's Church stands, once a lazar-house stood;
And chained to its gates was a vessel of wood;
A broad-bottomed bowl, from which all the fine fellows,
Who passed by that spot on their way to the gallows,
Might tipple strong beer Their spirits to cheer,
And drown in a sea of good liquor all fear!
For nothing the transit to Tyburn beguiles
So well as a draught from the Bowl of Saint Giles!^[69]

The first 17th-century organ was destroyed in theEnglish Civil War. George Dallam built a replacement in 1678, which was rebuilt in 1699 by Christian Smith, a nephew of the great organ builder "Father" Smith. A second rebuilding in the new structure was done in 1734 by Gerard Smith the younger, possibly assisted by Johann Knopple. Much of the pipework from 1678 and 1699 was recycled.

A rebuilding, again recycling much of Dallam's original pipework, was done in 1856 by London organ buildersGray & Davison, then at the height of their fame. In 1960 the mechanical key and stop actions were replaced with an electro-pneumatic action. This was removed when the organ was extensively restored in a historically informed manner byWilliam Drake, completing in 2006. Drake put back tracker action and preserved as much old pipework as possible, with new pipework in a 17th-century style.

In the east end of the north aisle there is a small box pulpit from which both John and Charles Wesley, the leaders of the Methodist movement, were known to preach.

Now whitewashed with a memorial inscription, it represents only the top part of a 'triple decker' pulpit which Wesley would have used in the nearbyWest Street Chapel. Wesley had taken on the lease of the building off of a dwindlingHuguenot congregation and it remained with the Methodists until his death in 1791.^[76]

Also known to preach from within this pulpit wereGeorge Whitfield andJohn William Fletcher.^[76] At the beginning of the 19th century the chapel was taken on by the Church of England, becoming All Saints West Street, and later closed for worship whereupon the pulpit was removed and preserved at St Giles.

Dating from 1810 the white marblefont withGreek Revival detailing is noted byPevsner as being attributed to the architect and designerSir John Soane.^[77]

On 9 March 1818 William and Clara Everina Shelley were baptised in this font in the presence of the novelistMary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin) and her husband, the poetPercy Bysshe Shelley. Also baptised that day was Allegra the illegitimate daughter of Mary's step-sister Claire Clairmont and the poetLord Byron. Part of the group's haste in baptising the children together, along with Percy's debts, ill-health and fears over the custody of his own children, was the desire to take Allegra to her father, Lord Byron, then inVenice. All three children were to die in childhood in Italy. After the premature death of the toddler Allegra Byron, at the age of 5, a grieving Shelley portrayed the toddler as Count Maddalo's child in his 1819 poemJulian and Maddalo: A Conversation:

A lovelier toy sweet Nature never made;
A serious, subtle, wild, yet gentle being;
Graceful without design, and unforeseeing;
With eyes – O speak not of her eyes! which seem
Twin mirrors of Italian heaven, yet gleam
With such deep meaning as we never see
But in the human countenance.^[78]

Shelley himself was never to return to England, drowning off the coast ofLeghorn in 1822.^[79]

Distinguished people with memorials in St Giles include:

• Richard Penderel, Roman Catholic yeoman forester who accompanied kingCharles II on his famousescape from theBattle of Worcester
• John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse, (24 June 1614 – 10 September 1689) was an English nobleman,Royalist officer andMember of Parliament, notable for his role during and after theCivil War. A committedRoyalist, he raised six regiments of horse and foot at his own expense and took part in theBattle of Edgehill and theBattle of Brentford, both in 1642, theFirst Battle of Newbury (1643), theBattle of Selby (1644), theBattle of Naseby (1645), as well as the sieges ofReading (1643),Bristol andNewark and was wounded several times. Belasyse is also considered to have been a founder member of theSealed Knot, a Royalistsecret society and underground organisation in operation during theProtectorate.
• Sir Roger L'Estrange, English pamphleteer, author, courtier and the last Surveyor of the Press of England.
• Andrew Marvell,Englishmetaphysical poet, satirist and politician.
• John Flaxman RA,sculptor anddraughtsman, and a leading figure in British and EuropeanNeoclassicism.
• Luke Hansard, printer to theHouse of Commons
• Thomas Earnshaw,watchmaker who simplified the production of themarine chronometer making them available to the general public for the first time. Watchmaker toCaptain William Bligh ofHMS Bounty.
• Arthur William Devis, English history painter whose most famous work was of theDeath of Nelson, now in theNational Maritime Museum atGreenwich.
• James Shirley 17th century English dramatist. House dramatist toQueen Henrietta's Men.
• Thomas Nabbes, 17th century English dramatist and writer of masques.
• Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury,Anglo-Welsh soldier, diplomat, historian, poet and religious philosopher. "the father of EnglishDeism".^[80]
• Mary,Countess of Kildare, consort ofValentine Browne, 5th Viscount and 1st earl of Kenmare, a leading Irish Roman Catholic aristocrat and head of the Catholic party in Ireland after the failed1798 rebellion. Died Portman Square, 1806.[1]
• George Chapman, Englishdramatist,translator andpoet.
• Cecil Calvert, first Proprietor of theColony of Avalon in 1610 andthe Maryland colony in 1633. (Some of the colonists were from St Giles's parish.) His memorial was unveiled on 10 May 1996 by the Governor of Maryland,Parris N. Glendening. Calvert, his son and daughters-in-law are buried at St Giles.^[3]
• William Balmain, one of the founders ofNew South Wales and Principal Surgeon of the Colony, has a memorial on the north-west wall, put up by the Balmain Society of Sydney in 1996.^[3]
• John Lumsden ofCushnie, member of theBengal Supreme Council and made director of theEast India Company in 1817.
• John Coleridge Patteson, Born inSt Giles Parish he became a missionary, anti-slavery campaigner in theSouth Seas and firstAnglicanBishop of Melanesia.^[81] Martyred on the island ofNukapu, he iscommemorated in theChurch of Englandcalendar on 20 September.

St Giles in the Fields is the custodian of theWhite Ensign flown byHMS Indefatigable at the taking of theJapanese surrender inTokyo Bay on 5 September 1945. HMSIndefatigable was the adopted ship ofMetropolitan Borough of Holborn. Following a request by the HMS Indefatigable association in 1989 theLondon Borough of Camden (which had succeeded the Borough of Holborn in 1965) agreed the laying up of the ensign in St Giles in the presence of the ship's company from theSecond World War.

The invocation of sorrow and loneliness, first embodied in the twelfth-century foundation, has never entirely left this area; throughout its history it has been the haunt of the poor and the outcast. Vagrants even now roam its streets and close to the church there is still a centre for the homeless.

St Giles the Hermit is considered the intercessionary saint of beggars and the homeless in the Catholiccalendar of saints^[83] and from its earliest foundation in the 12th century St Giles in the Fields has been associated with and noted for its connection tovagrancy andhomelessness. With the abatement of leprosy in England by the mid 16th century the Hospital of St Giles had begun to admit the indigent and the destitute and the sight of homeless in the parish and within the churchyard has been familiar from at least that time.^[4]

In 1585Queen Elizabeth I issued a proclamation ejecting 'destitute foreigners' from theCity of London and many of these drifted to and settled around St Giles in the Fields.^[83] The church records of the 17th Century talk of 'oppressed tipplers' fined for drinking on theLords Day and this sad connection continued throughout the 18th century as pictured in the works ofHogarth and alsoSmollett who refers to 'two tatterdemalions from the purlieus of St Giles and between them both was but one shirt and a pair of breeches'.^[84]Dispossessed Irish Catholics and pennilessBlack Loyalists from the American colonies were particularly conspicuous in this period.^[83]

In the 19th century St Giles could still be described byJohn Timbs in his Curiosities of London as 'a retreat for noisome and squalid outcasts'. In 1731 St Giles combined with theSt George's church to cooperate in 'a design for employing and relieving their numerous poor'.^[85] This, the St Gilesworkhouse, represented the first systematic effort at direct relief of the indigent and homeless in the parish and with its expansion (and the amelioration of the condition of the inmates) over the next 200 years it provided the basis of poor relief in the parish.

Although the church of St Giles in the Fields still contributes to and works with a number of homeless charities the direct provision for the relief of the poor and the homeless has now passed to theLondon Borough of Camden. The sight of the homeless and the distressed, however, is still familiar within the 'purlieus of St Giles'.

The two paintings ofMoses andAaron on either side of the altar are byFrancisco Vieira the Younger, court painter to theKing of Portugal.^[3]

The mosaicTime, Death and Judgment byG. F. Watts was formerly in St Jude's Church,Whitechapel. The cartoon for it was by Cecil Schott; it was executed bySalviati.^[86]

The great stained glass window at the east end of the church, over the Lords Table depicts thetransfiguration of Christ onmount Tabor.

St Giles in The Fields is a living Christian church within the EstablishedChurch of England set in theDeanery of St Margaret Westminster within theDiocese of London which forms a part of theProvince of Canterbury, the southern province of the Church of England within the worldwideAnglican Communion. Its clergy currently consist of aRector, aCurate and anassistant minister. Its worship adheres to the doctrines and practices of the Church of England as contained in the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion and expressed in the historic creeds and formularies contained in The Book of Common Prayer and the Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons.^[87]

The church is open daily for quiet prayer and reflection, withMorning Prayer said every morning at 8:15 am, andHoly Communion said on Wednesdays at 1 pm. During certain seasons St Giles conducts a short service ofSung Compline on Wednesday evenings between 6:30 pm and 7:00 pm. On Sundays, the two services areSung Eucharist at 11 am andEvensong at 6:30 pm. Regular 'guest preachers' are hosted at a specific Evensong once a month and represent all shades of Anglicanchurchmanship.^[88]

Services at St Giles are conducted in accordance with theBook of Common Prayer of 1662 and theKing James Bible. St Giles is also a corporate member of thePrayer Book Society^[89] and is a frequent participant in Prayer Book Society events.^[90] Visitors and new worshipers are provided with prayer books, service booklets andhymnbooks upon arrival and no familiarity with the services of the church is assumed or required for participation, although details of the services can be found on the church website.

St Giles regularly conductsweddings,funerals andchristenings both for those connected with the church and newcomers to the parish.^[91]

Church music is provided by a professional quartet of singers at Sunday morning services. The first Sunday in the month is generally given over to a more extended form of Sung Eucharist includingsung responses,Creed andGloria. On SundaysEvensong music comes from a voluntary choir, founded in 2005, which is open to all and has up to 30 members. The choir has traveled widely to sing at cathedrals, includingNorwich,Exeter,St Albans andGuildford.^[92]

The life of St Giles is conducted within the traditionalCalendar of the Church of England structured aroundAdvent,Christmas,Epiphany,Lent,Easter andTirinity with the chief festivals of the year beingChristmas Day,Epiphany,Candlemas,Ash Wednesday,Maundy Thursday,Good Friday,Easter Day,Ascension Day,Whitsun,Trinity Sunday andAll Saints Day with a number of lesser feast days.^[93] The Lord's Supper or Holy Communion, shared at 11:00 am on Sunday, forms the centre of weekly worship.

Alongside these thepatronal Feast ofSt Giles is celebrated on the nearest Sunday to September 1.Rogation Sunday is marked by the Rector, Churchwardens and congregation by the customarybeating of the bounds of theparish.^[94]

A yearly course ofLentenBible study is offered by theRector andPCC as well as parish retreats, quiet days and 'pilgrimages' or visitations to sister churches.^[95]

Together with the neighbouring parish ofSt George's Bloomsbury the St Giles & St George Charities focus on alleviating hardship and supporting educational achievement in the area.  The charities provide grants to local schools and educational initiatives,almshouse accommodation in Covent Garden and small grants to people experiencing hardship and homelessness.^[96] These charities are the modern successors of a number of historic foundations established in the St Giles area.^[97]

The Simon Community provides a weekly Street Cafe outside the church every Saturday and Sunday. Quaker Homeless Action provide a lending library at St Giles to people who would otherwise not have access to books every Saturday. Street Storage provides a facility to allow homeless people to store their possessions, which might otherwise be at risk of theft.  Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous

There is regularbell-ringing practice on Tuesday nights. The bells were cast in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[98]

• St Lawrence's Church, Mereworth, the spire of which is a copy of St Giles in the Fields.^[109]
• Holy Cross Church, Daventry is also said to have been modelled on St Giles in the Fields.

• Riley, W. Edward; Gomme, Laurence, eds. (1914)."Church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields".Survey of London. Vol. 5, Part II. London County Council. pp. 127–140.OCLC 847131920.

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