Questioning a Late Victorian “Dyad”: Preservationism, Demolitionism, and the City of London Churches, 1860–1904

Abstract Between 1841 and 1904, fourteen of Sir Christopher Wren's City of London churches, accounting for over a third of the City's forty Wrens, were demolished. But for certain deficiencies in the legislation enabling City church demolition, the toll would have been much higher. At one point during the late 1860s, well over half of all City churches had been selected for demolition. City church demolition was the most focused and yet also the most sustained episode of Victorian “vandalism,” and it therefore offers a uniquely appropriate case study through which to draw larger conclusions about late Victorian attitudes to the relative merits of historic preservation and development. The debates surrounding the demolition of Wren's City churches suggest that many advocates of historic building demolition were not, as William Morris would have us believe, “utilitarian philistines.” Nor, for that matter, were all preservationists motivated by heritage concerns.