St George the Martyr

St George the Martyr

St George the Martyr
4.5
Monday
Closed
Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Thursday
Closed
Friday
Closed
Saturday
Closed
Sunday
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
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The area

Address
Neighborhood: Southwark
Even before the arrival of the instantly iconic Shard, the riverside scene in Southwark had moved well beyond any up-and-coming phase of development. For quite some time, locals and out-of-towners alike have loved browsing the boutiques of Bermondsey High Street, foraging through the bounteous stalls at centuries old foodie haven Borough Market, and flocking to the banks of the Thames to enjoy some of Britain's biggest attractions such as Tate Modern and Shakespeare's Globe. Despite Southwark's many popular draws, instant calm can be achieved easily by turning down almost any side street. For more urban buzz, a quick stroll across famed bridges like the pedestrianized Millennium Bridge or the ever photogenic Tower Bridge yields access to the very core of Central London. And with London Bridge Station as this neighborhood's main transportation hub, getting across town (or to anywhere in England for that matter) is a relative breeze.
How to get there
  • London Bridge • 7 min walk
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.


4.5
4.5 of 5 bubbles16 reviews
Excellent
4
Very good
12
Average
0
Poor
0
Terrible
0

FFadden
Canberra, Australia261 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Nov 2011 • Solo
The Georgian church, with its stepped tower, is a comfortable walk from the Imperial War Museum, or one of a number of underground stations. It is located on the ancient route between the City of London and the ports of Kent, and remains a landmark in the heart of London's Borough district. A church has stood on the site since the early 12th Century; the current one since 1736. In 2006, during extensive restoration work funded via the UK Heritage Lottery Fund, Roman structures were found under the crypt.

The Parish’s prominence from the late 18th until the 20th century means that many people tracing English ancestors will, like me find them in St George’s birth, death or marriage records. The church is now in the centre of urban renewal with immigrants from the African continent prominent. Services in the church now pulsate to a distinctive African beat.

The church has many associations with Charles Dickens, whose father and family were imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea prison nearby, and who set parts of Little Dorrit in the church. There is a small representation of Little Dorrit in the east window of the church. A park and a street nearby also bear the name of Little Dorrit.
Written January 15, 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Kirk M
Edmonton, Canada1,902 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2016 • Solo
I really like this church---more for its associations with the Southwark area than for its architecture. It's right on Southwark's main street, and is a boxy, 18th-century red brick church with a stepped tower that always seems to me to be competing with the jagged top of "The Shard" close by!
Here, you really feel the presence of Charles Dickens, who lived a few doors down as an adolescent to be near his father who was in a debtors' prison that's now demolished but was adjacent to the church. Inside, a stained-glass window shows a scene from Dickens's grim novel "Little Dorrit": scenes from the novel were set right here.
There are some of the boxiest, most repetitive pews inside that I've ever seen in a London church. They're so plain and self-contained, with their little closed doors/gates. I always think that this is such a very Protestant characteristic, compared to the openness and expansiveness of the spaces inside Roman Catholic churches. These pews remind me of jail cells!
This is a great church to sit in for a while and think about the poverty and prisons that characterized Dickens's Victorian era. I also think the church has one of the prettiest steeples of any London church---at the top, a golden orb topped by a rippling flag.
Written July 12, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

LPLimon
Salem, MA88 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Jun 2013 • Solo
Go into the churchyard garden behind the church. Go to the far wall of that garden, a high brick wall with a gate in it. This is a surviving wall of the Marshalsea Prison, where Charles Dickens’s father (and therefore the whole family, except for Charles, who lived on his own) was briefly emprisoned for debt when Charles was 11.

That blight on his life—which included humiliating child labor pasting labels on pots of boot-blacking in a blacking factory—became fodder for his creativity. The work experience fed Oliver Twist. The Marshalsea experience fed Little Dorrit. Aside from the prison setting, the Church of St. George the Martyr is mentioned as the place where Amy Dorrit was baptized—and where she later married Arthur Clennam.

There is a plaque on the garden wall identifying it as a Marshalsea relic.
Written July 6, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

AlexSwallow
Sheffield, UK1,633 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2019 • Solo
I stumbled across this church on a long walk across London. Really liked the old-fashioned seats and the fact that a choir were practicing.

Sadly the couple sitting a bit behind me didn't really respect that it was a church and continued chatting away as I tried to have some quiet time- which rather got in the way of the peaceful atmosphere.
Written February 19, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

futtock21
London, UK17,259 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2017 • Solo
I visited St. George The Martyr at about 3pm on a Sunday afternoon, to find the Interior of this Georgian church, believed to be the third on this site, built between 1734-6, fairly heaving from the rehearsals of a black Gospel choir, surely sweltering in their full robes. In contrast some locals sunbathing in the gardens outside sported no more than a single item of clothing. It is built of red brick and Portland stone with a tower topped with a ball and weathervane. A pediment at its western entrance is supported by ionic columns. It has a number of historical and artistic connections. Its predecessor was said to have been the place where London Aldermen welcomed Henry V following his victory at the battle of Agincourt in 1415. It featured in the Hogarth engraving Southwark Fair (1733) a year before its demolition. The area in and around the church is festured in Dickens's Little Dorrit, whose character features in the east window. In real life, Dickens's father was imprisoned for debt in the nearby Marshalsea prison. In 1897 the plaster roof of the nave was replaced by the existing painting by Basil Champneys showing cherubs breaching the clouds. In 1899 the crypt was cleared and 1,484 coffins removed and re-buried in Brookwood, Surrey. In more recent years the church had to be closed as a result of subsidence the nave having been declared unsafe in 2000. Following underpinnIng the church re-opened in 2005 with a whole new crypt which has since been used as a conference centre. There are regular concerts on Thursday lunchtimes at 1pm. Nahum Tate, the librettist of Purcell's Dido & Aeneas, is buried here.
Written July 9, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Paul C
735 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
May 2016 • Solo
I had a long luncheon and used it to view this historic site ... I say site as the church building is perhaps 200 years old but it's history goes back 800+ years. Time well spent.
Written September 6, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Nicholas H
London, UK20,294 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2017 • Solo
Such a welcoming place. As soon as I stepped inside I was offered a cup of tea! This 18th century church is the third on the site and has a strong Dickens connection. The author's father was imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtors prison, which formed the north wall if the churchyard. It has a wonderful ceiling and two imposing side balconies. Unusually, it has two royal coats of arms, both of the House of Stuart. The tall spire dominates the approach to Borough High Street,
Written August 26, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

70ish
Worcester, UK2,097 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2016 • Solo
Unfortunately I didn't manage to see inside this historic church so it's top of my list next visit but I did go into the gardens and I found the remaining wall of the Marshalsea Debtors Prison so closely associated with Charles Dickens
Written July 28, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

futtock21
London, UK17,259 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Nov 2018 • Solo
St. George the Martyr is a Grade Il listed Georgian church at the southern end of Borough High Street. It’s in fact the third to have stood on this site. There is a remnant if a Roman wall in the churchyard and is close to the site of the former Marshalsea debtors’ prison which features in Charles Dickens’s Little Dorritt. Today I attended a lunchtime concert (these take place regularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays) expecting to hear a performance of Brahms’ Piano Trio op. 8 then with an added violist his Piano Quartet op. 25. On arrival, however, I was handed a programme informing me only one movement of the piano trio would be performed. A lady introducing the concert then announced the piano trio would not be played at all. At this rate I wondered if we’d get beyond the first movement of the quarter before being told the rest had been cancelled. Fortunately the players did get to the end of the piece having given a rousing if not exhilarating performance of a cornerstone of the Romantic era marred only st times by questionable acoustics.
Written November 15, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Michael H
Crowborough, UK784 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2016 • Solo
This church has a long history and is strongly associated with Charles Dickens, with the Marshalsea Prison (where his family were in prison when he was 12) in the vicinity originally and with the novel Little Dorrit - who is portrayed in the east window in stained glass
Written January 13, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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St George the Martyr, London

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