London No. 8 / Barking / Berkyngechirche by the Tower

Allen (1839?) writes: "The font is situated in the south aisle of the chancel; it is a shallow circular basin of capacious dimensions sustained on a a pillar, the whole being composed of a beautiful and curious sort of mottled marble. The cover is exceedingly handsome; it is carved with statues of boys and fruit in a bold style of sculpture; it is more ancient than the font". Both font and cover appear in an illustration in Crosley (1941). Described in Blatch (1995) as "a new font made of Gibraltar limestone by a Sicilian prisoner-of-war with the Grinling Gibbons cover (for which Gibbons was paid £12). The cover has cherubs, dove minus olive branch, leaves, flowers, wheat-ears, fir-cones etc. During restoration, it was found to have been made from more than 100 carved pieces, fixed in place by steel pins and glue. It dates from 1682." Blatch (ibid., p. 7 and ill. on p. 5) mentions also an octagonal footless font formerly at this church, in which William Penn was baptised, that is now at Christ Church, Philadelphia, in the United States [cf. Index entry for London No. 9]. The Hidden London site [www.hiddenlondon.com] notes that the font in which Penn was baptised is actually a wooden font. [Our gratitude to Peter Fairweather of Lincoln for the images of the font and the cover]