Ed Shardlow visited the church across the street from the Agency office on Denmark Street and sent me some fascinating fotos he took there. I asked him to write up his visit and he obliged me with these notes. Enjoy!
I was in the vicinity of Denmark St a few weeks ago and thought I’d drop in on the Church of St Giles.
John Granger has raised the possibility that the Church of St Giles in the Fields, located at the end of Denmark St, in plain sight of the Strike & Ellacott Agency office, will feature significantly at some point at the climax of the Strike series (see his 2017 post, a 2021 follow-up, and this year’s conversation about the Christian content of Rowling’s Evangeline charm bracelet) . As yet, the presence of this place of worship in close proximity to the Denmark St office has been hidden in the story with no mentions in the text.
The church is like so many in central London – an oasis of stillness open to public visitation in the midst of the busy city. It is steeped in history, while still providing a religious function for believers and a fascinating space for enquiring heathens. When I made my visit, there were a couple of fellow travelers having a look around, and a couple of organists airing the pipes of the instrument housed within.
I wasn’t sure what I was looking for as I explored the church. I read the memorials and tombstones, but didn’t spot any Strikes or Evangelines that may have provided Rowling with inspiration. There were of course numerous Christian images and icons which undoubtedly share some symbolism with the Christian imagery in Rowling’s works. But there didn’t seem to be anything particularly relevant to Strike.
The most interesting thing to me was the memorial for Andrew Marvell.
I know Marvell best for his superb Restoration-era booty call, To His Coy Mistress. A marvelous piece of verse, pointing out that life is short, and so we might as well get jiggy while we can. “Had we but world enough and time…”
I took some photos, which I sent to John after my visit. That very day John posted a discussion with Nick Jeffery about the different modes of alchemy, and mentioned Marvell’s interest in alchemy. Which was a fairly major coincidence and perhaps offers us a pointer as to what part St Giles in the Fields may yet play in the Strike saga.
Three Quick Notes from John:
1. The poem Ed mentions, ‘To His Coy Mistress,’ merits a twenty page chapter in Abraham’s Marvell and Alchemy because the sequence of images in it, especially the unnervingly graphic references for a love poem to bodies in tombs, parallel the alchemical work. Abraham notes that this “independent but parallel series of alchemical ideas and emblems” may not be essential for enjoyment of ‘His Coy Mistress,’ “this knowledge does, however, open up a new dimension in the poem’s meaning and enrich the reader’s experience” (297). It’s a lot more, in other words, than a booty call!
2. That picture on the stairwell screams ‘William Blake,’ no? I wish I could read the plaque beneath the painting.
[Ed sent me this picture after I posted his and my notes. It’s a mosaic by an unnamed artist that is a copy of a painting by George Frederick Watts. The mosaic was originally in another church (as was the pulpit) but was moved to St Giles when the original chapel was demolished. The Blake influence I think is obvious — and I hope that the moving of the mosaic was easier than I imagine. It seems St Giles is the repository of treasures from several London churches that are no more, a British Suzdal.]
3. I confess to being fascinated by the pulpit whose inscription reads in part, “From this pulpit… JOHN and CHARLES WESLEY preached regularly…” The brothers are famous as itinerant preachers so it’s a bit of a twist to think of either man having a fixed base. More important is that each brought the zeal of the Radical Reformation and its ‘inner light’ esoterism and pieties to the Magisterial Reformation Anglican church (John is considered the founder of Methodism, Charles remained an Anglican in name and spirit).
So what? It’s not a stretch that Strike would retreat to St Giles — he need only cross the street to the building that dominates his neighborhood! — for a moment of prayer about his ‘Coy Mistress’ should she disappear, suffer yet another injury, or (gulp) die. Egad, a funeral service a la the end of Casual Vacancy? Marvell, Blake, and the Wesleys provide a much more richly colored backdrop for his reflections in a pew or as a pall bearer in St Giles than the bare walls in the church in Running Grave.
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