CITY OF LONDON CHURCH OF ENGLAND CHURCHES

All Hallow By The Tower

Location: Byward Street, EC3R 5BJ (orange, pink)

See Also: THE CEREMONY OF THE ROSE

Website: www.ahbtt.org.uk

St Albans Holborn

St Albans Holborn s churchyard is in Surrey.

Location: 18 Brooke Street, EC1N 7RD (orange, purple)

Website: www.stalbansholborn.co.uk

St Andrew Undershaft

The Church of St Andrew Undershaft did not burn down during the Great Fire of 1666. However, the building s physical condition caused extensive restoration work to be carried out upon it during the 1680s.

The artist Hans Holbein (c.1497-1543) was buried in St Andrew Undershaft.

Location: St Mary Axe, EC3A 8BN (orange, grey)

St Bartholomew the Great

The Priory of St Bartholomew the Great was founded in 1123 as an Augustinian priory.

The front gateway of the Church of St Bartholomew was built by Sir Aston Webb.

In 2007 the church was the Parish Church of the Diocese of London in the Worldwide Anglican Communion.

In 2007 it was reported that Great St Bart s was going to introduce a 4 entry for tourists. Admission was free for those people who wished to pray.

Location: Cloth Fair, EC1A 7JQ (purple, brown)

Website www.greatstbarts.com

St Benet Paul s Wharf

In 1879 Queen Victoria signed an Order in Council that removed St Benet Paul s Wharf from a list of churches that were going to be demolished. She granted it in perpetuity for the use of Welsh Anglicans. Its services are according to the rites of the Church of England.

It holds an event each January to mark St Dwynen s Day, which is the Welsh equivalent of St Valentine s Day.

St Benet s Paul s Wharf has services in Welsh.

Location: 93 Queen Victoria Street, EC4V 4ER (purple, red)

Website www.stbenetwelshchurch.org.uk

St Botolph without Aldgate

J.F. Bentley remodelled St Botoph without Aldgate.

Location: Aldgate High Street, EC3N 1AB (purple, red)

Website: www.stbotolphs.org.uk

St Bride s Church

St Bride s was one of the four churches that rang out the City of London s curfew. During the 16^thC the parish became associated with the printing industry. The Great Fire of 1666 destroyed the medieval St Bride s. A new building (1678) was designed and constructed by Sir Christopher Wren.

During the 19^thC and 20^thC the church tended to the spiritual needs of members the newspaper industry. In 1940 the building s structure was severely damaged by an aerial bomb. Subsequently, an archaeological investigation revealed that its crypt had been built on top of a Roman house. The church was reconstructed. In 1957 it was rededicated.

D.V.D.: David Meara Cathedral of Fleet Street (2007).

Location: St Bride s Passage, EC4Y 8AU (purple, orange)

Website: www.stbrides.com

St Clement Eastcheap

In 1491 a will directed that in the parish of St Clement s Eastcheap 5s. should be spent each Maundy on entertaining people who had been in dispute with one another and if not on them then on entertaining honest parishioners who might pray for such people. In 1691 another directed that 10s should be spent on providing two turkeys for the reconciling feast.

Location: 27 Clements Lane, EC4N 7AE (purple, yellow)

St Helen s Bishopsgate

St Helen s Bishopsgate was the City church that the great merchants favoured above others for the internment of their corpses. The likes of Sir John Crosby (d.1476) and Sir Thomas Gresham (d.1579) chose to have their remains interred there.

Location: Great St Helen s, EC3A 6AT (purple, brown)

Website: www.st-helens.org.uk

St Magnus the Martyr

St Magnus the Martyr was the Earl of Orkney (1080-1115).

Location: Lower Thames Street, EC3R 6DN (orange, white)

Website: www.stmagnusmartyr.org.uk

St Margaret Lothbury

Location: Lothbury, EC2R 7HH (blue, red)

Website: https://stml.org.uk

St Mary Aldermary

Wren used the Gothic style for St Mary Aldermary.

Location: 69 Watling Street, EC4M 9DD (blue, brown)

St Mary-le-Bow

St Mary-le-Bow (1087) was the first stone church to be built in London.¹ The main body of the medieval structure was destroyed during the Great Fire of 1666. However, the crypt survived and is now the oldest ecclesiastical structure in the City. The present church (1673) that stands above it was designed by Sir Christopher Wren.

Location: St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, EC2V 6AU (blue, turquoise)

See Also: BELLS Bow Bells

Website: www.stmarylebow.org.uk

¹. The Saxons churches had been wooden.

St Mary Woolnoth

St Mary Woolnoth burned down during the Great Fire of 1666. Nicholas Hawksmoor was appointed to be the architect for its reconstruction. It was the only City of London church that was undamaged by the Blitz.

Location: 1 King William Street, EC4N 7BJ (orange, purple)

Website: https://stml.org.uk

St Olave s Hart Street

St Olave s Hart Street was named after Olave II Haraldss n, who had fled his native Norway after the King of Denmark had seized the Norwegian throne. In 1013 the exile helped the Saxon King Aethelred II the Unready to defeat the Danes who then controlled London Bridge. Two years later Olave returned to Norway to claim its throne, pledging himself to drive paganism out of the country. He secured a greater ascendancy within Norway than anyone had been able to achieve before. During his lifetime he was nicknamed the Fat . In 1164 he was canonised. He became the Scandinavian nation s patron saint.

That St Olave s Hart Street survived the Great Fire of 1666 was due in large part to the efforts of the diarist Samuel Pepys, who worshiped there using the Navy Office pew. He ensured that all of the wooden structures that were close to the church were removed before the fire could reach them. The corpses of Pepys and his wife were interred beneath the church s nave.

The Clothmakers Company s original City church was St Dunstan-in-the-East. The building of which was destroyed by an aerial bomb in 1941. Subsequently, the guild transferred its affiliation to St Olave s. (The roofless St Dunstan is now a pleasant, small park.)

Location: 8 Hart Street, EC3R 7NB (blue, white)

Website: https://saintolave.com

St Peter-upon-Cornhill

St Peter upon Cornhill is the oldest church in the City. Part of the structure may have been built during the Roman era.

Location: Cornhill, EC3V 3PD (orange, purple)

Website: www.stpeteruponcornhill.org.uk

St Stephen Walbrook

The medieval Church of St Stephen Walbrook was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666. The church was reconstructed (1679) by Sir Christopher Wren. He used it as an opportunity for experimenting with some of the ideas that he subsequently employed in his design for St Paul s Cathedral.

Sir John Vanbrugh paid his fellow architect the compliment of choosing to have his corpse interred in St Stephen s.

In the mid-1980s Controversy was generated when it was proposed that a ten-ton, marble altar that had been sculpted by Henry Moore should be installed in St Stephen Walbrook. The Rev Dr Chad Varah had to take the matter before the Court of Ecclesiastical Causes before the church was allowed to take receipt the work.

Location: 39 Walbrook, EC4N 8BN (blue, purple)

Website: https://ststephenwalbrook.net

The Temple Church

The Temple Church is one of only six surviving round churches in England. It was built for the Knights Templars in the 12^thC. It was modelled upon the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. During the Reformation King Henry VIII took possession of the building. In the early 17^thC King James I gave the freehold of its northern half to the Middle Temple and the one of its southern half to the Inner Temple. Members of the two Inns sit on separate sides of the nave from each another. However, the Crown retained the right to appoint the Temple Church s chaplain (the Master). It is still a royal peculiar that, despite its physical location, lies outside of the Diocese of London.

Location: Inner Temple Lane, Temple, EC4Y 7BB (orange, blue)

Website: www.templechurch.com

Hertfordshire s Holy Sepulchre

In 1742 a carved beehive-shaped cave was discovered in the chalk below Royston in Hertfordshire. The shape was believed to be modelled by the Knights Templar on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Its carvings referenced a number saints, including St Katherine. The Order won a battle over Saladin on her saint s day (25 November) in 1177. The chamber also included older carvings including ones of the Sheela Na Gig fertility symbol.

The Iron Curtain

In the 18^thC an iron curtain was a fire curtain in theatres. Its application to geopolitics occurred during the First World War. While the writer and pacifist Vernon Lee (n e Violet Paget) (1856-1935) was attending a service at Temple, she realised that the same music was being heard in German churches.

David Backhouse 2024