St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Trafalgar Square, London
Photo: Kevin Danks, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License
The nave of St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, London
Photo: under GNU Free Documentation License
St Martin-in-the-Fields is an Anglican church at the northeast corner of Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London. It is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours.
A burial dating back to Roman times was discovered here during an excavation in 2006. It led to a reappraisal of the importance of Westminster during Roman times. The reason is, although the Romans usually bury their dead outside city limits, the site of St Martin was way outside the Roman city limits.
The earliest documentation of St Martin-in-the-Fields was found in 1222, where a dispute between the Abbot of Westminster and the Bishop of London over who had control over St Martin was recorded. King Henry VIII rebuilt the church in 1542, so that plague victims do not have to pass by his residence at the Palace of Whitehall. At that time, the church was literally "in the fields", isolated and away from the cities of Westminster and London.
Although the old St Martin-in-the-Fields building was not destroyed by the Great London Fire of 1666, it was nevertheless replaced with a new building, by James Gibbs, in 1726. Though the new design was greeted with much criticism, it eventually found favour and became famous, leading to many similar copies built in the United States.
Due to its strategic location, St Martin-in-the-Fields is one of the most famous non-cathedral churches in London. It is famous for the social work done for the homeless. It is also a regular venue for lunchtime and evening concerts. A 36 million pound renewal project began in January 2006 is scheduled to be fully completed by early 2008.
External Link
St Martin-in-the-Fields official website
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