Patricia Lovett MBE

Calligraphy | Illumination | Design

St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden – the Actors’ Church

Many visiting Covent Garden have little idea that there is a church behind the magnificent portico, in front of which conjurors, acrobats and magicians impress the audience and, hopefully, pay for what they see.

This portico is part of the grand plan of the Earl of Bedford, Francis Russell, who was laying out a large piazza in this part of Covent Garden. As can be seen here, the Church sits well with the arched columns on the north side of the piazza, and paths laid out behind a railed fence in a huge area of gardens. The church itself was built between 1631–33.

However, this grand entrance isn’t used; the access to the church from the piazza is via two arched entrances either side of the portico (they can be in the first image) and then round the sides of the church to the west entrance. The reason for it not being the main entrance is that the church faces east and this is the direction that it is thought the congregation should face – towards Jerusalem and where Jesus lived. No exception was made by the Bishop of London at the time, Bishop Laud (1573–1645) and so the ‘entrance’, which has never been used, is behind the high altar. The church is large, 50 by 100 feet and 38 feet high.

It is called, and is, the Actors’ Church because Charles II, on the Restoration, licensed two ‘Patent’ theatres – the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, and the Royal Opera House at the other end of the piazza to the church, both within the church’s parish. Inside are many plaques commemorating significant actors. Here are some of them.

The pulpit is particularly splendid and is thought to be by Grinling Gibbons or by one of his pupils. The famous, and unbelievably talented wood carver attended the church for decades.

Also in the church is the Aubrey Leyborne Theatre, a model theatre that was built in 1928 to show how theatres work. It shows scenery, flats and the rigging system to move the flats up and down.

Outside the west front is an oasis of calm. The graveyard, now a beautiful garden, provides respite for those who want to site and contemplate. When visiting Covent Garden, why not spend a bit of time behind that portico of entertainers and enjoy the tranquil and calm of the Actors’ Church, St Paul’s, Covent Garden?