christ church spitalfields, london

hawksmoor's church has a western block akin to a westwerk, the portico a baroque reading of the newly fashionable venetian window, transformed into a triumphal arch. though an addition of c.1725 to the finished front of the church, it fits perfectly with the concave sides of the tower behind; so much so that it is difficult to imagine the church facade without it. it seems to grow naturally out of the motif of the transverse vaults over the aisles inside, a perfect frontispiece to this most playfully geometric of his churches.