This church is a rectory, the patronage of which has been for above three hundred years in the Bishop of London. The Rector, besides other considerable advantages, receives 120_l._ a year in lieu of tithes.
CHRISTOPHER’S _court_, 1. Cartwright street. 2. Rosemary lane.
_St._ CHRISTOPHER’S _court_, Threadneedle street.
CHRISTOPHER’S INN YARD, 1. Barnaby street. 2. St. Margaret’s hill.
CHRIST’S CHURCH, Church street, Spitalfields. The district in which this edifice stands was till lately considered as a hamlet in the parish of Stepney: but the kind reception given to the persecuted French protestants, greatly increased the number of the inhabitants of this spot, and these refugees bringing the silk manufacture along with them, soon brought affluence to the place, and with it a multitude of new inhabitants. Hence this was constituted a distinct parish from Stepney in the year 1728, and one of the fifty new churches was ordered to be built here. The foundation was laid in 1723, and it was finished in four years.
The body of this church is solid and well proportioned; it is ornamented with a Doric portico, to which there is a handsome ascent by a flight of steps; and upon these the Doric order arises supported on pedestals. The tower over these rises with arched windows and niches, and on its diminishing for the steeple, is supported by the heads of the under corners, which form a kind of buttresses: from this part rises the base of the spire, with an arcade; its corners are in the same manner supported with a kind of pyramidal buttresses ending in a point, and the spire is terminated by a vase and fane. This is the character given of this edifice in the _English Architect_: who asserts that solidity without weight is its character, and that though this structure is not without faults, yet it is worthy of great praise; it being singular, and built for ages. It has however been severely censured by the author of _The Critical Review of Buildings_, who says that it is one of the most absurd piles in Europe.
This church is made a rectory, but is not to be held in commendam. For the maintenance of the Rector and his successors the Parliament granted the sum of 3000_l._ to be laid out in the purchase of lands and tenements in fee simple: besides which provision the Churchwardens are by that act appointed to pay him annually the sum of 125_l._ to be raised by burial fees. _Maitland._