St Giles-in-the-Fields, 60 St Giles High Street, London, WC2H 8LG
The origins of St Giles-in-the-Fields date back to the 12th century, when Queen Matilda, wife of Henry I, established a leper hospital on the site. In accordance with medieval practices of isolating leper colonies, the hospital was located outside the city walls and named after St Giles, the patron saint of lepers.
In the 17th century, the medieval structure was replaced by a red-brick church, consecrated by William Laud in 1623, but this building was later demolished to accommodate the current structure. The rebuilding, undertaken between 1730 and 1734, was designed by Henry Flitcroft (1697–1769), an architect aligned with the Palladian revival, a movement championed by Lord Burlington (1694–1753), one of the most influential patrons of the arts in this period. Burlington and his circle aimed to restore the classical purity of Andrea Palladio’s Renaissance architecture, in contrast to the elaborate Baroque style that had dominated the work of architects like Christopher Wren (1632–1723) and Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661–1736).
This architectural shift from Baroque to Palladianism (or Neo-Palladianism, as Inigo Jones introduced Palladio’s philosophy to English architecture in the early 17th century) reflects Britain’s broader cultural and political transformations. The Baroque style flourished during the late Stuart period and was characterised by grandeur, dramatic forms, and intricate decoration. By the 1720s, however, it had come to be viewed as excessive and politically associated with Tory and Catholic sensibilities. In contrast, the Whig elite, which held political dominance, favoured the more restrained, symmetrical, and rational Palladian style, perceived as embodying Enlightenment ideals.
The church, built entirely of Portland stone, features a 160-foot steeple with Doric pilasters and an octagonal tower surmounted by an Ionic spire. The interior, with its Ionic columns and semicircular-headed windows, conveys a sense of restrained elegance, setting it apart from earlier decades’ more ornate Baroque churches.
