St Mary Matfelon
| St Mary's, Whitechapel | |
|---|---|
| St Mary Matfelon Church, Whitechapel | |
St Mary's Church, Whitechapel,
after the fire in 1880 |
|
 St Mary's, Whitechapel
Location in London
|
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| 51°30′59″N 0°04′07″W / 51.5163°N 0.0686°WCoordinates: 51°30′59″N 0°04′07″W / 51.5163°N 0.0686°W | |
| Location | Whitechapel, London |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Architecture | |
| Status | parish church |
| Functional status | defunct |
| Completed | 1329 |
| Administration | |
| Deanery | Tower Hamlets |
| Archdeaconry | Stepney |
| Diocese | London |
| Province | Canterbury |
The St Mary Matfelon church, popularly known as St Mary's, Whitechapel, was a Church of England parish church on Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel, London.
For more than 600 years a Christian church stood on the site of Adler Street, White Church Lane and Whitechapel High Street, London E1. The original church known as the Whitechapel Church, St Mary Matfelon was the second-oldest church in Stepney after St Dunstan's Church. It was created as a chapel-of-ease for the local area in the 13th century. In 1673, the parish of Stepney was divided into nine separate parishes, one of them being the newly-formed parish of St Mary's, Whitechapel. A third church was built on the site in the 19th century, largely at the expense of Octavius Coope; it was opened and re-consecrated on 2 February 1877.
On 26 August 1880, the new church, which had been opened little more than three years before, was devastated by a fire which left only its tower, vestry and church rooms intact. It was rebuilt and opened once more on 1 December 1882, this time with a capacity for 1600 worshippers and including an external pulpit for sermons, some of which were given in Yiddish.
During The Blitz, on 29 December 1940, an enemy fire raid destroyed the church. It was left in disrepair until it was finally demolished in 1952.
The site of the church became St Mary's Gardens in 1966; it is now a public park called Altab Ali Park; an outline of the footprint of the church is all that remains of it. Among those buried on the site are the mutineer Richard Parker, the hangman Richard Brandon, the philanthropist Sir John Cass, and "Sir" Jeffrey Dunstan, the "Mayor of Garratt". The clockmaker Ahasuerus Fromanteel was buried at the church in 1693.
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Wikipedia