In Regency romance lore, St. George’s Hanover Square is the church where many society couples married during the Regency. Located in Mayfair, it’s a lovely “little” church (little compared to something like St Paul’s Cathedral!) which looks a bit like St. Martin-in-the-Fields. You can still see St. George’s Hanover Square today. Here are some photos I took last time I toured Mayfair. (They were doing some repair work at the time, as you can see!) There’s isn’t a huge amount of Regency Mayfair still standing (St James’s is much better preserved) — Almack’s is gone, and so much else — but there are some gems left (like this one!) Here are a couple more pictures:
I do love taking pictures of churches and cathedrals — they photograph so well!
If anyone wants to see more pictures of Regency London, let us know! (There’s a lot more where these came from . . .)
Cara
Cara King, www.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER — Signet Regency, November 2005
Am I allowed a vote? Because I DEFINITELY want to see more England pics! 🙂 These are great views of St. George’s, Cara. Last time I was in London, I wandered around Mayfair for hours looking for this place (we originally got the wrong directions and went to the wrong St. George’s!!! I thought it didn’t look at all as I’d pictured…) and finally found it after dark. By that time my feet hurt and all I wanted was to find a pub and have a Guiness. 🙂
Has anyone been inside? What does it look like?
I think I couldn’t go inside that time… Here’s some info from the book MAYFAIR by Reginald Colby (1966):
Foundation stone laid 1721…
It was consecrated in 1725…
Architect was John James, a pupil of the James Gibbs who built St Martin-in-the-Fields (so I was right about the resemblance!)
Colby says “Inside, the church walls are almost bare of tablets and memorials, as it was not used for burials.”
Hmmm…well, that’s not a huge amount of information. Anyone have info on what the inside looked like?
Cara
I came by the way of Megan’s blog.
Although I lived in London for a few years, I’ve never been inside [then again, I have never been to most tourist attractions *guilt*], but here is a couple of sites that have interior photos of the church:
St. George’s
Photo London
There is one with a better image collection, but I can’t seem to find it.
When I do, I’ll pass it on to Megan. 🙂 Cheers.
all I wanted was to find a pub and have a Guiness
And what’s so wrong with that?
Cara, great pix, thank you. I vote for more pix, but that might be because I like pretty pictures. Ooh, pretty.
Thanks for the links, McVane! Though oddly enough, the site of the first link seems to have expired today (or at least, that’s what my computer tells me — but heck, it tells me lies a lot, so maybe it’s just confused.) 🙂
Cara
(smiley = nice!)
Just in time…I was at a point where a character offered a hansom carriage driver a guinea (that he doesn’t actually have) to get to the church on time, or St. Blank’s, as I wrote it.
Thanks. Nice pics!
I vote for more pix, too. These are wonderful. And thanks for all the links, McVane!
Myretta Robens passes along this link of a pic St. George’s interior:
http://www.pemberley.com/images/personal/stgeorgeint.jpg
Thanks, Myretta!
What a great link, Myretta! Thanks! I can easily picture Regency aristocrats attending such a swank church. 🙂
Cara