The Dutch Church

6 Annotations

First Reading

Glyn  •  Link

The Dutch Church, Austin Friars (the unusual street-name referring to an earlier Augustinian monastery), nearest underground station is Bank.

Open Tues-Fri 11 am to 3 pm, and main Sunday service in Dutch at 11 am.

Founded 1253, enlarged 1354. Donated to Dutch Protestant refugees in 1550: may be the oldest Dutch Protestant church in the world. Sketch by Van Gogh, 1876, in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Destroyed by enemy bombing, 1941. Rebuilt in extremely modern abstract style and opened by Princess Irene of The Netherlands in 1954. Striking stained glass windows including a portrait of Queen Wilhelmina.

The church welcomes Dutch worshippers from all religious traditions.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

Austin Friars, Old Broad Street, Broad Street Ward, the house of the Augustine Friars, founded by Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, in the year 1253. Henry VIII., at the Dissolution, bestowed the house and grounds on William Paulet, first Marquis of Winchester, who transformed his new acquisition into a town residence for himself, called, while it continued in his family, by the name of Paulet House and Winchester House (hence Winchester Street adjoining). The church, reserved by the King, was granted by his son "to the Dutch nation in London, to be their preaching place," the "Dutch nation" being the refugees who fled out of the Netherlands, France, "and other parts beyond seas, from Papist persecutors."
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.

References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1662

  • Dec

1663