‘World’s biggest jigsaw puzzle!’ How Gothic church in London’s West End was saved from Nazi bombs… by being dismantled block-by-block then rebuilt eight miles away before WWII started
- St Andrews Church thrived when built in the late 1840s in London’s West End
- After the First World War, attendances plummeted and it closed in 1931
- Planners wanted to demolish the church and replace it with new office buildings
- After a public outcry, it was moved block by block towards Wembley Stadium
A Victorian church built in central London was moved to the suburbs block by block shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War – meaning it avoided being destroyed by Hitler’s bombs.
St Andrew’s Church was built in the late 1840s in London’s West End. The church, with its tall spire, was one of the most fashionable in the city, located only a short distance from Fitzrovia and Oxford Street.
The church was designed by renowned Victorian architect Samuel Dawkes and used dozens of craftsmen to complete an intricate and ornate interior.
St Andrews Church was originally built in the 1840s in London’s West End but was closed down in 1931 and moved block by block more than eight miles away to its new home in Kingsbury
There was outrage at the time when planners originally wanted to demolish the church which was built on Wells Street, Marylebone and replace it with office space. Instead, Church of England planners decided to move the church to Kingsbury, north west London – which was a rapidly expanding suburb – to replace a medieval church which was considered too small for the area’s growing congregation
However, following the First World War, the number of people visiting the church had declined dramatically and by Easter 1931 it had been closed down.
For a while, the church, with its hugely ornate interior, was facing demolition as the population living in the West End declined dramatically as houses were replaced with commercial units and shops.
Instead of being demolished, authorities planned to move the building by carefully dismantling it block by block and moving it eight miles out the road to Kingsbury, a new rapidly growing suburb near the Metropolitan Line’s extension beyond Wembley Stadium.
Each block from the church was numbered and transported on a fleet of trucks.
The massive project received attention from across the Atlantic, with one US newspaper describing the endeavor as ‘the world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle’.
However, architects were not simply facing the task or recreating the original property, they needed to alter it slightly.
W A Forsyth included several windows on both sides of the church which allowed light to flood in.
When in Wells Street, the church was bordered on both sides by other buildings – so it did not have enough windows for its new location only yards from a Norman-built church.
The project to move the church took three years and it was eventually re-opened in October 1934.
Luckily for the historic church, the building had been moved in advance of the Blitz as Wells Street suffered a number of direct hits during bombing raids on the area.
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