Halley and the London Queen Anne Churches

Abstract

Edmond Halley's enormous contribution to science has received much attention. New research adds an intriguing chapter to his story and concerns his hitherto unexplored association with the baroque architectural visionary Nicholas Hawksmoor, and some important Temple-inspired churches that were built in London in the early 1700s. We argue that Christchurch Spitalfields and St Anne's Limehouse, which were both started in the summer of 1714, were aligned exactly eastwards using "corrected© magnetic-compass bearings and that Halley influenced or aided Hawksmoor. By this time the men had probably known each other for 30 years and had recently worked together on the Clarendon Building in Oxford. Despite there being more than 1500 years of Chinese and about 500 years of Western compass technology at the time, these probably represent the first constructions planned using a modern-day "scientific" technique. The research also throws light on Halley's contended religious position.