Owner Comments:
Middlesex Skidmore's Churches and Gates DH #615
Obverse: A west view of St. Lukes's ST. LUKE'S . OLD ST . BUILT 1732. Ex: JACOBS. in small letters
Reverse: An open book, radiated, inscribed HOLY BIBLE on one page and EXI CHAP. 1 on the other, the whole between crossed olive and palm branches, surmounted by the word RELIGION .
Edge: SKIDMORE HOLBORN LONDON
Diesinker: Benjamin Jacobs
Manufacturer: Paul Skidmore
Weight: 12.31g
Rarity: Common
The parish of St. Luke's was formed out of that of St. Giles-without-Cripplegate by an Act of Parliment and was consecrated in 1733. It served as a parish church from 1733 to 1959 and is a Grade I listed building. Following closure in 1959 the church stood empty and roofless for some 40 years but since 2003 it has served as a music center for the London Symphony Orchestra and is known as LSO St. Lukes. When it was closed the parish was re-absorbed back into that of St. Giles-without-Cripplegate.
The family business of the token manufacturer Peter Skidmore was an iron foundry at 15 Coppice Row in Clerkenwell with a shop at No. 123, High Holborn. Skidmore realized that there was a market for tokens as the genuine tradesmen's pieces of the time were very keenly collected as they were issued. As well as making genuine tradesmens' tokens to order, he also made pennies and halfpennies for sale to collectors of the time - especially series of Buildings Tokens for London.
One of a set of 120 pieces - each portraying a well-known church in or around London.
Atkins: Middlesex 471
Bt. Merfyn Williams