St Paul's Church, Covent Garden, Anglican church in Covent Garden, London, United Kingdom
St Paul's Church, Covent Garden, is a classical church building in central London standing on the western side of the piazza. The stone façade presents a portico with heavy Tuscan columns, while the interior is marked by a wide nave and understated timber panelling.
Inigo Jones designed St Paul's for the 4th Earl of Bedford; work finished in 1633 at a cost of £4,886, and it was consecrated in 1638 after a dispute with the vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields. It became a separate parish church dedicated to Saint Paul in 1646. Thomas Hardwick restored it in 1789; in September 1795 a fire started by workmen on the roof burnt it out, and it was reconsecrated on 1 August 1798.
The church is known as "the actors' church" for its long association with the West End theatre community. Its churchyard holds the graves of the actress Edith Evans and the actor Clive Brook, and the painter Sir Peter Lely was buried here in 1680.
The portico facing the piazza is not the entrance: the main door is at the plain west front, reached by the pathway called Inigo Place off Bedford Street. The piazza front, with its clock and Tuscan columns, is the east end, where the altar stands behind the wall.
The patron requested a simple construction, to which Jones replied he would build the handsomest barn in England. This anecdote shaped the perception of the building as a deliberately restrained design with architectural refinement.
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