St. Mark's Church

Church and community centre

In the centre of Myddelton Square sits St. Mark's church. St. Mark's is home to an Anglican congregation with regular servies, a community centre used by local Guide and Scout groups, the Trinity Islington Church congregation, and the Meditatio meditation centre.

The original owner of the land was the New River Company, in the parish of St James, Clerkenwell. On 20th November 1822, the Rev Handley of St James Church wrote to New River Company and suggested to them that they include a church in one of the squares which they were constructing at that time. The company's board met one day later, on 21st November 1822 and granted land for a church.

The church was to be built ‘within six years’; the Grounds were to be enclosed ‘on all sides’ by ‘proper iron railings’; no burials were to be suffered in the Grounds; the grounds were to be kept ‘in perfect order and repair according to such regulations as may be proper for that purpose, without any expenses to the Company’; and that ‘in any Contract or Agreement ... provisions ... be inserted ... for the accommodation of the Tenants and Occupiers of the surrounding estates’.

The church was dedicated to St Mark and the first vicar installed on January 1st 1828. A year later, In 1829, the land, now enclosed with iron railings, was laid out with ornamental gardens by Manfield and Durant Hidson. The lessees of properties in the Square met the cost of that work.

St Mark’s church was damaged during the Blitz in the 1940s, blowing out windows and causing plaster to fall off the walls. At the same time, a number of houses on the north side of Myddelton Square were also destroyed. The houses were rebuilt in replica by the New River Company 1947/48, and the church restored in the 1960s (although services continued in a side chapel before then).

For more information, please visit the St. Mark's, Clerkenwell website.