Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The church of Saint Peter in Clerkenwell was also known as Smithfield Martyrs Mission Church. The church occupied the site of Northampton House, the town house of the Marquesses of Northampton until the early 1700s. After becoming a madhouse and later a school, the house was demolished in 1869 to make way for the very large church of Saint Peter. The foundation stone was laid by Lord Shaftesbury and the church was consecrated in 1871. It was designed by E.L. Blackburne, and was built of stock brick with Bath stone dressing and doorways of Lancaster stone. The church commemorated the religious martyrs burnt at Smithfield, and the west front had a frieze of 17 statues of the English Protestant Martyrs while inside the church were wall tablets listing 66 English martyrs. The building suffered severe bomb damage in 1940, in November 1955 the parish was united with Saint James and Saint John, Clerkenwell, and the building was demolished in 1957. It was described by Pevsner in Buildings of England as 'quite uncommonly ugly'.