Site unseen: St Michael and All Angels, Shoreditch
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Your support makes all the difference.From a distance it looks like a typical if rather grand Victorian church, tucked away in a quiet Shoreditch side street.
But as you get closer you soon realise that instead of a notice board outside giving details of services and the vicar's address, there is a profusion of bedsteads, marble columns, gazebos and wrought-iron fencing.
Inside you will find an Aladdin's Cave of antiques and curios. Glass lanterns stand next to Victorian kitchen ranges; glitzy mirrors rub shoulders with elegant chimney pieces; gnarled old bollards get frisky with pert little balustrades; exquisite ceramic tiles make eyes at hefty stone sinks. There are enough knobs and knockers to keep both Steptoes amused.
The church of St Michael and All Angels, completed in 1865 by the architect James Brooks, is the home of the London Architectural Salvage and Supply Company Limited ('Lassco').
For much of the nineteenth century, the Church of England placed a touching faith in the spiritual powers of bricks and mortar. If an area was rundown, its solution was simple: build a church.
The main beneficiary was the East End. In Bethnal Green 12 churches were built and consecrated. Most were architecturally undistinguished but there were exceptions, particularly those designed by Brooks, 'the Sir Christopher Wren of the East End'.
Today, dwindling congregations doom churches which survived German bombs to redundancy and possible demolition - unless alternative uses can be found.
At St Michael's you can still admire Brooks' beautiful timber-braced roof, the fine stained glass and feel that this is 'a house of God'. But the arrival of Lassco in 1976 gave the building a new lease of life, introducing a welcome bustle and vigour.
This is the place to sharpen your eye for a bargain and to marvel at mankind's ingenuity in creating so many weird and wonderful objects.
St Michael's/Lassco Mark Street EC2 (Underground, Old Street).
(Photograph omitted)
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