Hélène Binet's intense photographs of Nicholas Hawksmoor's London churches feature in a new exhibition at St Anne's Limehouse – just one of the approaches used to speed the restoration of the church in time for its tercentenary
On 14 September, an exhibition of striking black-and-white photographs by Hélène Binet of London’s seven remaining Hawksmoor churches opened – appropriately enough – in the baroque architect’s muscular St Anne’s, Limehouse, completed in 1730. Commissioned for the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale, Binet’s intense photographs focus on light and shade, geometry, layering, scales, texture and materiality.
The exhibition, Hawksmoor6, has been organised by Care for St Anne’s – a charity set up in 1978 to raise funds for the church’s conservation – as part of its recently launched Hawksmoor300 campaign. The goal is to transform St Anne’s in time for its tercentenary in 2030, remodelling its large crypt (requiring extensive disinterment); introducing step-free access and a lift to all floors (involving a contentious puncture through the south wall of the church); and inserting a café, meeting and performing art spaces, upgraded toilets and improved heating and lighting.
According to Philip Reddaway, chair of the management committee: ‘What we’re aiming for is a long-term sustainability plan, not just a temporary fundraising measure, one that will allow the nave to be used as a high-end venue – with Hawksmoor’s Christ Church Spitalfields as a model – hired for weddings, corporate events and the like. If we can achieve that, then we can hire the staff to make a real success on both commercial and community sides – so there’s all sorts of parts of the jigsaw.’ The ambition is to avoid a phased implementation: ‘It makes much more sense for everybody if we can just do it all at once. We see this as a once-in-a-generation chance.’
Relatively well-preserved, despite an 1850 fire and ensuing Philip Hardwick restoration, St Anne’s is the last of the great Hawksmoor churches yet to be fully restored (it is still on Historic England’s register of buildings at risk) in large part due to its penurious East London location in an old ship-building village. A £613,000 grant was received from the National Lottery Heritage Fund last year, and a delivery grant of over £3 million should follow, but at least £3.6 million of further funding is needed to deliver the masterplan by architect John Bailey of Thomas Ford and Partners, and there is still a significant amount to raise.
On one level, Hawksmoor6 is a celebration of both photographer and architect. Reddaway explains, ‘We’re bigging up our Hawksmoor heritage story – we don’t want to lose the fact that this is an iconic church, and that we’re aiming to turn it back into just that.’ But there is another important aspect to the exhibition – luring influential figures into the campaign’s fold. ‘We have to get the support of individuals, that’s our challenge. So we're trying to get a whole group of people who are either influencers or personally wealthy, who can help us move things forward. We absolutely can't just rely on the Heritage Fund – there are too many people basically competing with us for their money.’
The model is the Hawksmoor Committee formed by Elizabeth Young, Baroness Kennet, in 1962, and involving John Summerson, Kenneth Clarke, John Betjeman, Nikolaus Pevsner, Denys Lasdun and the Smithsons, among others. ’All the great and good of culture of the time, they basically saved Christ Church Spitalfields from destruction,’ says Reddaway. ‘They got a gang of people together who just lobbied until they could find a way to save it.’ In 2004, a full restoration of Christ Church was finally completed, ‘but they had the Sainsbury family behind them, which was pretty useful'.
To achieve the allure necessary to attract affluence, the backing of major cultural figures has been secured, including that of Nicholas Serota – who held a pioneering exhibition of Hawksmoor’s work at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1977, and has been filmed reminiscing in St Anne’s for Hawksmoor6 – and Charles Saumarez Smith, former director of the Royal Academy. A little populist glamour wouldn’t go amiss though: ‘If you look at other people trying to raise money at the minute – there’s the Barts 900 campaign for St Bartholomew’s Hospital, for instance, which Michael Palin is involved in – there's no doubt about it, a big name does help. Ian McKellen is probably the biggest celebrity living today in Limehouse, but we haven't quite managed to lure him in yet.’ To a degree, this is all a necessary evil: ‘It’s interesting because in France you'd have the state stepping in – but not in this country. It’s left to activists, lobbyists and individuals, which makes each restoration a story in itself.’
However, other angles beyond fundraising are required to ensure a long-term future, and Care for St Anne’s is expanding its focus beyond conservation to encompass education and community engagement: ‘There’s no purpose in spending all this money if the church isn’t properly used by the community – I’m passionate about that,’ says Reddaway. Last year’s exhibition, Limehouse Lives, explored the church’s maritime heritage – St Anne’s is one of the very few churches to fly the Royal Navy’s White Ensign – with an acknowledgement of its inevitable connections to slavery.
It is hoped to hold an exhibition next year drawing on the rich archives of celebrated Limehouse-based charity Stitches in Time, founded as a community project in 1993 to create 50 tapestries for the millennium. This would act as a productive catalyst to further links with the 40% of the local community that is British Bangladeshi, helping to bring its representatives onto the campaign board, assisted by local MP Asana Begum.
Welcome progress is already clear, with the great east window designed by Charles Clutterbuck in the 1850s due to go back in situ later this year – one more step in bringing the ‘cathedral of the East End’ back to life, and ensuring its long-term future.
The Hawksmoor6 exhibition at St Anne’s, Limehouse will be open for Open City week, starting Saturday 14th September through to Saturday 21st September 10am–4pm excluding Sunday, then open late on Friday 20th until 8am. Thereafter the exhibition is open Fridays and Saturdays 10am–4pm. It will include a pop-up display of work by 20 Bartlett students exploring urban regeneration and architecture at Limehouse and St Anne’s.