The drawings for St Martin Outwich were identified by Paul Jeffrey (1989), who gave their design to George Dance the Elder. However, a comparison of hands shows that they were drawn by the younger Dance and this must have been during the time that he worked as his father's unpaid assistant in the office at the Guildhall. Though very different from his design for the Church of All Hallows made earlier in the same year (1765) it can be seen as his work though doubtless with contributions from the elder Dance.

St Martin Outwich was a medieval church at the corner of Threadneedle Street and Bishopgate Street that, having escaped the Great Fire of 1666, was damaged by fire on 7 November 1765. Dance the Elder provided a plan for repairs and for a new steeple that was discussed by the vestry on 14 January 1766 and was carried out and completed by may 1766. Earlier, in February, cracks appeared in the walls: called in to report again, the elder Dance stated '... the Repairs may be safely carryed on according to the Agreem[en]t...' (quoted from vestry minutes by P.Jeffrey). It may be assumed that the design for rebuilding the church was made in about December 1765. According to C.W.F. Goss, consideration had been given to rebuilding the Church but Paul Jeffrey could find no reference to this in the vestry minutes and thought it 'likely that the churchwarden approached him for a design but then failed to secure the backing of their own vestry' (p.161).

The unexecuted scheme is for a church on a stretched octagonal plan with two corner alcoves at the east end. Though, the younger Dance's preference was for centralised octagonal naves, the elongated and symmetrical but unequal eight-sided plan was the solution to a very tight and irregular site. Paul Jeffrey suggests that the inspiration came from Wren's church of St Benet Fink in Threadneedle Street (built 1670-75, demolished 1846) which had an elongated ten-sided plan. Dance's elevation shows a four-stage tower, rectangular on plan, centred on the west front and with a Doric cupola. The use of Serlian windows 20 feet wide, elaborated with doubled Ionic columns and antae, seems unlike Dance until the Shakespeare Gallery in Pall Mall with its Serlian entrance is called to mind. And Serlian windows (though not executed) were designed for the galleries of St Luke's Hospital [SM D4/2/6]. In fact, the window employed here is a variant used by Lord Burlington and subsequent architects, in which a relieving arch extends over all three openings. The cornice with its dentil course and the vermiculated Gibbs surround to the tower door together with the ornate interior add to the impression of a design with undigested features that might have been revised, simplified and perfected had construction gone ahead.

By 1796 the Church of St Martin Outwich was in a poor state and was rebuilt to S.P.Cockerell's designs. It was rearranged by Charles Barry in 1827 and demolished in 1874.

LITERATURE. C.W.F. Goss, The Parish and Church of St Martin Outwich, Cambridge, 1929; P.Jeffrey, 'The Later history of St Martin Outwich, City of London'. London Journal, XIV (2), 1989, pp.160-69.

NOTES ON [SM 43/9/16], [SM 43/9/14], [SM 43/9/15], [SM volume 19/3] and [SM volume 19/2]

On comparison of hand, draughtsmanship and of the method of drawing the scale (for example with three dots over the numeral, as in [SM volume 19/2] drawings [SM 43/9/16], [SM 43/9/14], [SM 43/9/15], [SM volume 19/3] and [SM volume 19/2] appear to have been made by the younger Dance.

REPRODUCED. P.Jeffrey, 'The Later history of St Martin Outwich, City of London', London Journal, XIV (2), pp.160-69, figs 1-3 reproduce [SM 43/9/16], [SM 43/9/14], and [SM 43/9/15].