2-791-534 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

St George's, Bloomsbury, 1844. 'This singular structure, situated in Hart-street, Bloomsbury-square, is one of the fifty new churches appointed to be built at the public expense, by the Act of Parliament passed in the tenth year of the reign of Queen Anne; it was consecrated in 1731...it was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor...its most admired feature is the magnificent portico of eight Corinthian columns...Walpole calls the steeple a masterpiece of absurdity...Above this stage commences a series of steps, gradually narrowing, so as to assume a pyramidal appearance, the lowest being ornamented at the corners by lions and unicorns, and supporting at the apex of the steps, on a short column, a statue in Roman costume of George I...Elsewhere it has been remarked that Hawksmoor has literally made the king the head of the church'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol I.