GreaterLondonBLOOMSBURYStGeorge(diliffCC-BY-SA3.0)1 DavidIliff

St George

St George's Bloomsbury, the work of Nicholas Hawksmoor, is one of the finest Baroque churches in London and indeed has been described as ‘one of the capital’s most wonderful buildings’.

Bloomsbury, Greater London

Opening times

Our opening hours are limited to the following:
Wednesday 1.30pm to 3.30pm (some weeks only).
Thursday 1pm to 3pm (every second week).
Friday 1.30pm to 3.30pm.
Sunday 12noon to 1pm.

Address

Bloomsbury Way
Bloomsbury
Greater London
WC1A 2SA

The Commissioners for the Fifty New Churches Act of 1711 realised that, due to rapid development in the Bloomsbury area during the latter part of the 17th and early part of the 18th centuries, the area (then part of the parish of St Giles in the Fields) needed to be split off and given a parish church of its own.

They appointed Nicholas Hawksmoor, a pupil and former assistant of Sir Christopher Wren, to design and build this church, which he then did between 1716 and 1731. This was the sixth and last, of his London churches. St George's was consecrated on 28 January 1730 by Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London.

The Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope was baptised here in 1824. Richard Meux Benson, founder of the first Anglican religious order for men, Society of St John the Evangelist, the ‘Cowley Fathers’, was also baptised in the church. The funeral of Emily Davison, the suffragette who died when she was hit by the King's horse during the 1913 Derby, took place here that same year. Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia attended a controversial requiem for the dead of the Abyssinian war in 1937.

The famous stepped tower is influenced by Pliny the Elder's description of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, and topped with a statue of King George I in Roman dress. Its statues of fighting lions and unicorns symbolise the recent end of the First Jacobite Rising.

These symbols would’ve been well known at the time because of the popular nursery rhyme; 'The lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown, the lion beat the unicorn all around the town'.

The Portico is based on that of the Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek, Lebanon. The tower is depicted in William Hogarth's well known engraving ‘Gin Lane’ (1751) and Charles Dickens used St George's as the setting for ‘The Bloomsbury Christening’ in Sketches by Boz.

  • Spectacular stained glass

  • Social heritage stories

  • National heritage here

  • Magnificent memorials

  • Glorious furnishings

  • Famous connections

  • Captivating architecture

  • Wifi

  • Train station within 250m

  • Steps to enter the church or churchyard

  • Space to secure your bike

  • Ramp or level access available on request

  • Parking within 250m

  • Café within 500m

  • Bus stop within 100m

  • Accessible toilets in church

  • Church of England

Contact information

Other nearby churches

Chapel of St Christopher

Bloomsbury, Greater London

Described by Oscar Wilde as “the most delightful private chapel in London”, this is arguably the most sumptuous hospital chapel in the country.

Crown Court Church of Scotland

Covent Garden, Greater London

The Church of Scotland has been active in London since the time of James VI, King of Scots, who became King James I of England in 1603, the current building dates from 1909, but Crown Court Church has been on this site since 1719.