Located betwixt Euston and King’s Cross stations, the Crypt of St Pancras Parish Church was built in 1822 and used for coffin burials until 1854, when the crypts of all London churches were closed to burials. It’s now used as an atmospheric arts and performance space.
Crypt burial was the method of choice for the well heeled, and it also provided a handy revenue stream for the churches.
The official website records that the first burial at St Pancras was that of Ellen Strachey, aged 12, on 6th June 1822 and the last was that of Harry Pearce, aged 71, on 27th October 1854. The crypt remains the final resting place for 557 people.
I went to visit the ShoShoShow, which showcased the work of artists on the City Lit Sculpture Course.
The website explains more about the show:
Throughout this two year period the students have committed themselves to developing their individual practice of sculpture as a continuous dialogue with contemporary life through the history, language and making of objects.
Keeping the question of what is sculpture at the forefront of a vibrant workshop community these artists evolve an ever expanding fieldwork, pushing the bounds of fundamental human relationships with object making, space and being. Materials commonplace and hallowed are reformed, space captured, activated, delineated and set free, objects mass, hide, separate, interact and breed, our lives inner, outer, personal and political are expressed, perhaps concealed, mirrored, but we are all invited and provoked to participate, flee, laugh and reflect as we thread our way through a laboratory of ‘thing’.
ShoShoShow a labyrinth of idea, object and event presents a vital investigative journey by a group of sculptors for whom the definition of sculpture is never closed.
More crypt photos
Door detail (which contrasts nicely with the piece above).
The Crypt Gallery, London, NW1 2BA. The current show runs until the 12th July 2014, admission free.
ShoShoShow Sculpture – Crypt gallery
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