Another Hawksmoor design, for Christ Church, Spitalfields, may be said to rank higher for the bestial power of its facade and macabre associations. (It was built over a burial pit for plague victims.) But the drama of exterior and interior spaces at St.

WSJ: St. Mary Woolnoth | Nicholas Hawksmoor | Fortress of God | Masterpiece by Richard B. Woodward

If proven, they were denied a Christian burial - and instead carried to a crossroads in the dead of night and dumped in a pit, a wooden stake hammered through the body pinning it in place.

BBC: When suicide was illegal