St Bride Fleet Street London Greater London

Mission Statement

We would like to offer you a warm welcome to St Bride's. Whether you are a visitor to London, someone who works in the City, a journalist or a member of one of the media industries, or whether you are wondering about celebrating a special occasion here, we want you to feel that St Bride's is a special place of peace, prayer, and hospitality.

St Bride's Church is a magical space in which the beauty of its architecture, the power of the liturgy and the weight of history all meet and enrich each other. The building was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and completed in 1703, with the 226 foot spire dominating the surrounding area. Its graceful tiers became the inspiration for the traditional tiered wedding cake! When sunlight shines in through the large windows the interior gains a special luminous quality as a place of peace and prayer.

The worship is complemented and enriched by our professional choir of twelve adult singers, all first class musicians who sing for our Sunday services, weddings and memorial services, as well as pursuing their own international careers.

Wren's church was bombed in the Second World War and rebuilt in 1957, making this the 8th church on this site. In the crypt a fascinating exhibition shows the results of the extensive excavations in 1953, the remains of previous churches, and a pictorial history of Fleet Street, which used to be the centre of the newspaper industry. Even though the presses have scattered across London the media still retain strong links with St Bride's which is the spiritual home of journalists everywhere.

Reputedly the earliest Christian site in the City of London, there are fragments of a Roman pavement of the second century AD behind the crypt chapel, where worship has been offered for over 1500 years. If you haven't visited a church for some time, I hope you will find that St Bride's helps you to reconnect with your spiritual roots, and makes you want to find out more.

Our Mission is:-

To be open to God in all that we do. To share God's love and proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, through worship pastoral care, teaching and outreach. To maintain and develop our ministry to our five core constituencies: the media, the geographical parish, our Sunday congregations, our City and livery links and our visitors and tourists. To grow our congregations. To maintain the excellence of our musical tradition.

Our values:-

Worship that is dignified, traditional and uplifting, complemented by music of the highest standard.

A warm and welcoming fellowship that is inclusive and non-judgemental.

An environment that is beautiful, peaceful and prayerful.

A place of enquiry and intellectual stimulation through thoughtful and topical sermons, discussions, and occasional lectures and forums on issues of current importance.

Pastoral care that is sensitive and appropriate, on a daily basis, and through baptism, wedding and memorial services.

Two other factors shape our mission. One is our Patron saint, Bride. She was known for her warm hearted generosity, her miracles of healing, and in Irish tradition is seen as the first woman priest. For the mission of St Bride's today these qualities suggest an active and inclusive ministry, rooted in the offering of hospitality and the service of other, and centred on the world and its needs.

The second factor is the church building. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren and sensitively restored after war time bombing, its cool Classical interior stresses openness, light and elegance, while the collegiate style of the seating gives a sense of intimacy. The post-war work of Geoffrey Allen and Glyn Jones encourages a feeling of wonder, imagination and beauty. The building is well suited for corporate worship, for private prayer, for social gatherings and for musical events. We have in it a priceless resource for fulfilling our vision for the future.

 

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Step free access to the ground level is available from the West End (Salisbury Court entrance). Access to the Crypt is by steps only.  

St Bride's is a busy, inclusive and thriving parish church in the centre of the City of London; an inspiring space in which the beauty of its architecture, the power of the liturgy and the weight of history all meet and enrich each other. The Church of St Bride is justly world famous. To enter its doors is to step into 2,000 years of history, which had begun with the Romans some six centuries before the name of St Bride, daughter of an Irish prince, even emerged from legend to become associated forever with the site.

The story of St Bride's is inextricably woven into the history of the City of London. By the time the Great Fire of 1666 left the church in ruins, a succession of churches had existed on the site for about a millennium, and the area had already assumed its unique role in the emergence of English printing. It took nine years for St Bride's to re-appear from the ashes under the inspired direction of Christopher Wren, but for the next two-and-a-half centuries it was in the shadow of the church's unmistakeable wedding-cake spire that the rise of the British newspaper industry into the immensely powerful Fourth Estate took place.

Then, in 1940, St Bride's fell victim once again to flames as German incendiary bombs reduced Wren's architectural jewel to a roofless shell, although, miraculously, the spire survived. This time 17 years elapsed before rebuilding was completed, although a series of important excavations in 1953 amid the skeletal ruins, led by the medieval archaeologist Professor W. F. Grimes, came up with extraordinary results, uncovering the foundations of all six previous churches on the site.

On 19th December 1957, on the anniversary of Wren's church being opened for worship 282 years previously, St Bride's was rededicated in the presence of the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Strong and successful efforts have been made by recent Rectors to bring into the church's embrace the new occupants of the now-silent newspaper offices - chiefly lawyers, accountants and investment bankers - whilst guiding the spiritual journey of the congregation. Twenty-five years after the last newspaper left, the large number of memorials and carol services we hold every year are evenly split between the "old" and the "new" Fleet Street.

The church today has a light, open feel of symmetry; the floor is paved with black marble from Belgium and white from Italy. This is very much a living church in a modern world.

As a result of a successful endowment appeal, new side aisle seating, constructed of English and European oak, was installed in 2004, offering significantly better views for large congregations while preserving the beautiful character of the church. Out of the inferno of that hellish night in December 1940 has emerged something beautiful, which remains the spiritual heart both of the parish of St Bride's and of the journalistic community in Britain and throughout the world.

The church retains strong City links, has built up an enviable musical reputation, and is home to thriving Sunday congregations, as well as being a major tourist landmark. Set back from Fleet Street, only yards from the tremendous bustle of Ludgate Circus, yet seemingly existing in its own peaceful space, St Bride's is one of the most historic, vibrant and beautiful churches to be found anywhere in London.