A stone plaque on the ground outside St Mary Somerset Tower, London, England.

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This image shows a stone plaque on the ground outside St Mary Somerset Tower, London, England. The plaque says: "1869 - 1874 first church to be demolished under the Union of Benefices Act but leaving the 120 Foot tower which was saved by one Ewan Christian for posterity." St. Mary Somerset was a church in the City of London first recorded in the twelfth century. Destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, it was one of the 51 churches rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. The tower is located in Upper Thames Street, the body of the church being demolished in 1871. The Union of Benefices Act was a piece of legislation regarded as necessary to reduce the number of parish churches in the City of London as the residential population declined in the second half of the 19th century. Ewan Christian (1814–95) was a British architect. He is most notable for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and the design of the National Portrait Gallery.

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Size: 3708px × 2511px
Location: Castle Baynard Street, London, England.
Photo credit: © Stuart Robertson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: act, benefices, christian, church, color, colour, demolished, england, ewan, famous, horizontal, image, landscape, london, mary, outdoors, people, place, plaque, somerset, st, stone, street, thames, union, upper, wop