St George’s, Bloomsbury is a striking Baroque parish church in central London, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and consecrated in 1730. Located on Bloomsbury Way in the London Borough of Camden (WC1A 2SA), it was the sixth and final London church by Hawksmoor, a pupil of Christopher Wren, built under the 1711 Fifty New Churches Act to serve Bloomsbury’s growing population amid nearby slums like St Giles’ Rookery.
Its iconic stepped tower draws from Pliny’s description of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, topped by a statue of King George I in Roman attire, flanked by fighting lions and unicorns referencing the Jacobite Rising and the nursery rhyme.
This tower famously appears in William Hogarth’s 1751 “Gin Lane,” contrasting the church’s grandeur with the squalor of the Rookery slums.
 
Interesting facts...
The pagan nature of the tower did lead to the architect getting into some hot water. Hawksmoor, dubbed the “Devil’s Architect” for his bold pagan-classical fusions, faced payment disputes over the “frivolous” steeple.