London and Its Environs Described, vol. 6 (of 6) / Containing an Account of Whatever is Most Remarkable for Grandeur, Elegance, Curiosity or Use, in the City and in the Country Twenty Miles Round It

by Anonymous

But the temple church requires a more particular description. We shall therefore trace it from its origin, and describe its several parts.

The first church here was founded in the year 1185, by the knights Templars; it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, but was more generally called by the name of the founders, than the protectress. In 1240, the old structure was taken down, and another erected after the same model. The present edifice was one of those that escaped the fire of London in 1666; but in 1695 the south-west part was new built, and in 1706 the whole was thoroughly repaired.

The whole edifice is stone firmly put together and enriched with ornaments. It consists of a long body with a turret, and a round tower at the west end, that has much the air of a piece of fortification. The length of the church from the altar to the screen is eighty-three feet, its breadth sixty feet; and the height of the roof thirty-four. The round tower is forty-eight feet high; its diameter at the floor, fifty-one feet, and its circumference 160 feet.

The windows which enlighten the body of the church are large and well proportioned. They are composed of three Gothic arches, a principal, and a lower on either side. These windows stand so close that there are but very slender piers left between them to support a very heavy roof; they are therefore strengthened with buttresses; but these buttresses, as in most other Gothic structures, exclude more light than the piers would have done, had they been larger, and the windows considerably smaller.

The tower which is very massy, has few windows, and those small, yet there are buttresses carried up between them; the top is crowned with plain square battlements, and from the center rises a fane.

The turret upon the body of the church is small and plain, and serves to receive a bell. In short, what can be seen of the outside has a venerable aspect, but nothing either grand or elegant: the principal beauties are to be seen within.

On entering the round tower, you find it supported with six pillars, wainscotted with oak six feet high, and adorned all round, except the east part, which opens into the church, with an upper and lower range of small arches, and black apertures; but what is most remarkable in this part, is, that there are here the tombs of eleven of the knights Templars who lie interred here; eight of which, are covered with the figures of armed knights; of these five, to shew the veneration they had for the cross of Christ, lie cross legged; and these had made a vow, to go to the Holy Land, in order to make war on the infidels. Three of these are the tombs of the Earls of Pembroke, William Marshal the elder, who died in 1219; his son, who died in 1231, and Gilbert Marshal, his brother, who was slain in a tournament at Hertford in 1241, The other effegies lie strait legged; and the rest of the tombs are only coped stone; but both the effegies and these stones are all gray marble.

This tower is divided from the body of the church by a very handsome screen in the modern taste; which will be described hereafter. On passing this screen we find the church has three roofs supported by tall and slender pillars of Sussex marble. The windows are also adorned with small neat pillars of the same stone, and the floor paved with black and white marble. The isles are five in number; three, as usual, running east and west, and two cross isles.

The walls are neatly wainscotted with oak above eight feet high, and the alterpiece, which is of the same wood, is much higher, finely carved, and adorned with four pilasters and two columns of the Corinthian order: it is also ornamented with cherubims, a shield, festoons, fruit and leaves. The pulpit, which is placed near the east end of the middle isle, is finely carved and veniered; the sounding board is pendant from the roof, and enriched with several carved arches, a crown, festoons, cherubims and vases.

The screen at the west end of the isles is like the alterpiece, of wainscot, and adorned with ten pilasters of the Corinthian order, with three portals and pediments. The organ gallery, over the middle gallery is supported by two fluted Corinthian columns, and ornamented with an entablature and a compass pediment, with the King’s arms well carved. Near the pediment on the south side is an enrichment of cherubims and a carved figure of a Pegasus, the badge of the society of the Inner Temple, and in the pediment on the north side an enrichment of cherubims, and the figure of a Holy Lamb, the badge of the society of the Middle Temple: for though these two houses have one church, they seldom sit promiscuously there; but the gentlemen of the Inner Temple on the south, and those of the Middle Temple northward from the middle isle.