the east may show the growing influence of the revival of Palladian architecture, or it may be a rhyme with the arched pediment of the entrance portico, repeated in the wide main stage of the tower. The east window is a double window, one inside, one outside, the effect now obscured by the Victorian stained glass window between the two. In his book "Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture", Robert Venturi remarks on the tower of Christ Church, Spitalfields as "a manifestation of both-and at the scale of the city. Hawksmoor's tower is both a wall and a tower. Toward the bottom the vista is terminated by the extension of its walls into kinds of buttresses perpendicular to the approaching street. They are seen from only one direction. The top evolves into a spire, which is seen from all sides, spatially and symbolically dominating the skyline of the parish." Alterations In 1836, Wallen Son and Beatson, local architects and surveyors, provided a substantial estimate for repairs to the church following a fire. The church was severely altered in 1850 by Ewan Christian (better known as architect of London's National Portrait Gallery), who removed the side galleries, blocked in the windows at the corners of the central space, and combined upper and lower aisle windows to make tall, thin windows. Churchyard The churchyard was closed to burials in 1856. It was converted to a public garden by the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association in 1892, laid out to a design by the landscape gardener Fanny Wilkinson. However, it was largely built over by the church school, and only a small portion of the garden remains. Organ The organ in the church was inaugurated in 1735, the work of Richard Bridge, a most celebrated builder of the time. With over two thousand pipes it was, when built, the largest organ in England, a record it held for over a hundred years. In the nineteenth century work was done at various times and further changes were made in the 1920s; remarkably, much of the original Richard Bridge organ survives. The organ became derelict and was not heard in public from about 1960 onwards. The magnificent organ case, largely of walnut, and the completeness of the Georgian survivals, make this a historic instrument of national importance. The involvement of local expert Michael Gillingham was very largely responsible for the decision to have it restored to working