Designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor during 1712-1724 and consecrated in 1730, St Anne’s Limehouse is one of the great masterpieces of English Baroque architecture. This awe-inspiring Grade 1 listed building is located in a conservation area in the heart of Limehouse.
The church has a rich maritime history. Its imposing 50m tower was designed as a landmark visible to shipping on the Thames. Its clock, resting on the tower, is the highest clock on any London church and has a special maritime design which underlines the strong historical ties between the church and the Royal Navy. It chimed every 15 minutes to help guide the 6000 ships that used the Limehouse docks daily.
Over the clock is a golden ball, used as a navigation mark by ships sailing on the Thames. Its proximity to the Thames made it a convenient registry for sea captains. Therefore, Queen Anne allowed the church to display the White Ensign, which is the second most senior flag of the Royal Navy, and to this day it is always displayed at the top of the tower.
Regrettably, St Anne’s is currently on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register! The building is in a very poor state of repair and not fully accessible so lifts and ramps are a top priority. The heating and lighting systems are inadequate and need replacing. The windows and glasswork need repair. Without swift action, Hawksmoor’s magnificent church will become unsafe and unusable.
Our vision is for St Anne’s Limehouse to celebrate its 300th anniversary as a world class architectural heritage site, an iconic landmark of Limehouse’s maritime past, and a community hub integral to the regeneration of London’s East End and its diverse communities.
Our Hawksmoor300 Campaign offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all of us to come together, conserve, and celebrate St Anne’s. The restoration of the church will also be a catalyst for a wider regeneration of Limehouse, and a uniting community hub for a range of community-led initiatives and partnerships in East London.
We need a better building and facilities, with acceptable levels of heating that make spaces comfortable and welcoming. The church fabric needs urgent repair and conservation work. Access falls well short of acceptable standards as the building’s three main levels – the Crypt, the Nave and the Gallery – can only be accessed via steep uneven steps. Wheelchair access is impossible.
With upgraded facilities, we can offer the local community flexible, low-cost spaces. All three levels of the church offer opportunities for improved use and capacity and the potential to generate income! The current scheme offers a 22% increase in usable space, with annual users increasing from 13,290 to 64,134.
NLHF funding will create offices for additional staff, who will train more volunteers. Our magnificent building will then be able to open daily, so its fascinating history and beautiful public spaces will be available to all.
Our vision for the ground level is to create additional space for bigger congregations, live performances, and events. Along with regular worship and its work in the community, St Anne’s has developed a deep tradition of music. It currently offers limited space to two orchestras and has also often been used as a setting for film and television, including ‘28 Days Later’, ‘Legend’, and ‘Call the Midwife’.
To transform the ground level space, we will need:
• Ramps, stairs, and lifts
• Lobbies and porches
• WCs
• Storage
• Offices
• Creche
• Removal of the pews and replacement by stackable, connectable chairs
• Tea point
Our vision is for the Crypt to provide a social hub with a café and a range of resources and facilities to benefit the Limehouse community. The space will become St Anne’s Café, meeting rooms, community workshops, a sensory room, and volunteer-led walkways to guide visitors’ tours into the church’s unseen and hidden places.
To transform the Crypt level space, we need the following:
• Installation of new stairs and lifts
• Lobby
• Meeting rooms
• Exhibition space
• WCs and shower facilities
• Kitchen and tea point
• Storage
• Café
• Sensory room
Our vision for the gallery is to transform it into a space for rehearsals, exhibitions, displays, training, and workshops. The programme of exhibitions will be created in conjunction with the Museum of London Docklands and Whitechapel Gallery and explore a variety of historic subjects and heritage stories.
To transform the gallery space, we need to build and refurbish:
• New stairs and lifts
• Lobby and porches
• Space for storage of chairs and display equipment
• Two offices for volunteers and staff
• The gallery walkways and training hubs
Many local people have no access to gardens and rely on the churchyard for exercise, communing with nature and gardening. Together with Groundwork, we plan to turn the vast area of the churchyard into substantial green and open gardens for a variety of community initiatives including creating:
• Community gardens
• Venues for festivals and celebrations
• Gardens of Remembrance
St Anne’s large size, its location and its garden setting have the potential to create an exciting and vibrant quarter for the community.
Our vision is to celebrate, share and explore the diverse history of St Anne’s through collaboration and partnership. We plan to work with the Museum of London Docklands, Queen Mary’s University of London, the Building Crafts College in Stratford, Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), and the Whitechapel Gallery to create community learning projects:
• ‘Go Build a Boat’, an engineering project for young people
• Stained Glass Workshops for families
• ‘Mending a Hawksmoor’, vocational training for building students
• Community curated displays
• Apprenticeships
• ‘Limehouse Lives’, displays and events celebrating locals past and present, complemented by a digital trail
St Anne’s can capitalise on its proximity to the Museum of London Docklands, Young V&A (the newly redeveloped V&A Museum of Childhood), the Museum of the Home, the Whitechapel Gallery, and V&A East. Partnering with these sites will increase tourism.
A programme developed with the Building and Crafts college at Stratford will offer college students hands-on participation in the restoration and adaptation of St Anne's through monthly sessions at the church and a rolling programme of activities covering the entire spectrum of skills being employed on the restoration: stonemasonry, brick vault restoration, floor laying, woodwork, and conservation of glass. St Anne’s will also offer two apprenticeships, one in stonework and the other in plaster work.
The work needed for the church building includes:
- Interior repairs of the building fabric
- Heating and lighting
- Heritage interpretation
- IT and sound
- A camera obscura for views across the river
- Windows and glasswork
- Masonry repair
- Flashing pointing
- Staircase and lift
- Acoustically separate meeting spaces
- Bike and buggy storage
We think one of the blessings of genuine church is being united with people we might have nothing in common with.
There might be all sorts of things you’d like to find in a church. A particular style of music, architecture, liturgy or vibe. We all have our preferences. But we’re convinced that whatever our preferences, the Bible’s unchanging message about Jesus Christ, freshly proclaimed, needs to be at the centre of our loving community.
Come and see why we love St Anne’s.
Revd. Richard Bray, Rector
To fulfil our 2030 vision, we submitted a funding application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) and received an initial Development Grant of £613,000 towards the £7.3m total project target. The NLHF grant is to bring together a campaign team and raise £3.6m towards the capital costs by November 2024. Once we have successfully raised this sum, we will be able to bid again to the NLHF in November 2024 for £2.9m for the Delivery Phase.
Hawksmoor 300 Campaign Target: £7.3m
Development Phase 1: May 2023 – Nov 2024
NHLF £613,000
Donations £40,585
In-kind £30,000
Secured to date £683,585
Towards capital costs £3,600,000
Total £4,283,585
Delivery Phase 2: November 2024 – Dec 2027
NLHF £3,000,000
In-kind £150,000
To secure £3,150,000
Care for St Anne’s (CfSA) was launched in 1978 under the Rectorship of Rev Christopher Idle. It is an independent charitable trust set up to raise and hold funds for St Anne’s major programme of building conservation.
The Trust has many friends who have generously supported our work over the years. We have a set of distinguished Patrons, with a variety of interests and skills – faith-based, architectural, academic, historical, musical, and community. This is a highly effective group of people who are committed to the restoration and ongoing maintenance of Nicholas Hawksmoor's great church. The charity is also committed to the ambition of opening St Anne’s to greater engagement with the local community.
