More City of London Churches

The church stands in Gresham Street, with the entrance in Guildhall Yard.
Named after St. Lawrence, who was roasted to death on a grid iron in AD 258. The weather vane is in the shape of a grid iron, but some sources say that he was beheaded. The name Jewry comes from what used to be the Jewish section of the City until they were expelled in 1290 by Edward I. The nearby street, Old Jewry housed the Great London Synagogue until then.
Another of the churches to be destroyed in the fire of 1666, it was rebuilt by Wren in 1671-77. After bombs in 1940 left only the walls and tower it was renovated by Cecil Brown in 1954-57.

This Saxon built church was mentioned in 1055 and is built on the site of the Roman basilica. The tower was rebuilt in 1421 and the church burned down like so many others in the fire of 1666.
Wren started rebuilding in 1670-72 but the tower was a later addition by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1718-22. This was due to funds running out for Wren’s gothic design.
A restoration was carried out by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1857-60 which altered it’s appearance greatly by ‘Victorianising’ the church. St. Michael’s has a great musical history, and Henry Purcell gave a recital on the Renatus Harris organ here in 1684. The Royal College of Organists was founded here.

The original church was in existence before 1096 on the west bank of the river Walbrook and was rebuilt on the east bank in 1429-39 at the expense of a former Lord Mayor, Richard Chicheley. Another of the churches to be destroyed in the great fire, it was rebuilt by Wren in 1672-9. It is thought that some of the techniques used on this church were a test for his plans for St. Paul’s Cathedral. The 50 ton dome was one of these prototypes.
War damage was repaired by Godfrey Allen and further restoration in 1978-87 following subsidence of the long lost Walbrook river’s path. The rector, Chad Varah, founded The Samaritans organisation here in 1953. The telephone that took the first call can be seen inside the church.

Standing in College Hill, this church was named after the Rosary makers nearby. The “Royal” is a corruption of the word “La Reole” which was the town in France where  the vintry merchants who inhabited the area imported wine from. It was first mentioned in 1219.
Richard (Dick) Whittington paid for the rebuilding of the church in 1409. He was buried here in 1423.
After it’s destruction in the 1666 fire it was again rebuilt, by Christopher Wren in 1686-94. The steeple was finished in 1713. The interior was restored by William Butterfield in 1866.
After suffering severe air raid damage in 1944, it was once again restored in 1967.

Thought to be the first church completed (1677) by Wren after the fire, the church stands in Queen Victoria Street. It is named after the patron saint of children. Despite it’s name, it was never an abbey. The name probably came from the word “coldharbour”, which meant a shed or shelter.
It was, in the past, closely connected to the fishmongers and was referred to as “St. Nicks behind Fish Street” in a charter dated 1272. There was a fish market here, and many fishmongers were buried here in the 1600’s.
The church was gutted by incendiary bombs on a May Sunday morning in 1941. It was restored to Wren’s original plans in 1962.

The original church belonged to a band of 13 knights who were given the land by King Edgar for services rendered. In 1115 the Knighten Guild, as they were known gave the church to the Priory of Holy Trinity Aldgate, who rebuilt it.
After being found unsafe in 1740 George Dance rebuilt again in 1744 when a boy’s body was found standing upright in a vault. It could be viewed for tuppence, and people were “impressed by the well preserved state of his intestines”!
Daniel Defoe was married here in 1683. He tells of two pits being dug in the churchyard that were filled with the bodies of 5,136 plague victims of 1665.

Although the church escaped the great fire with minimal damage it had already been rebuilt in 1627.
Nathanial  Wright was responsible for another rebuilding in 1788-91, and the west front was resurfaced in 1831.
It sits in a garden known as “Postman’s Park” which is made up of it’s own churchyard and two other churchyards of long gone churches - St. Leonard Foster and Christ Church Newgate Street.
Saint Botolph’s has one of the few original stained glass windows not destroyed during the blitz of World War II.

The full name is St. Botolph Without Bishopsgate, as it stands just outside the City wall. The first known mention was in 1212 and it apparently overlooked the ditch that surrounded the City.
The Knights Templar were interrogated about the suspected corruption of the order.
The Lord Mayor, Sir William Allen, paid for it’s rebuilding in 1571-2 and although it escaped the great fire of 1666 it was demolished and rebuilt in 1725-8 by George Dance (the elder). It has been restored seven times after this, up until the IRA bombs of 1992-3 when it was again repaired. There is a pleasant garden next to the church.

There were originally four St. Botolph churches near the gates, the fourth being St. Botolph Billingsgate, which was never rebuilt after the great fire. It stood in Lower Thames Street and was first mentioned in 1181. The churches were built just outside the City gates in the 10th. and 11th. centuries for “the spiritual comfort of travelers”. They were named after a 7th. century Saxon Abbott who became the patron saint of travelers.

St. Mary Woolnoth of the Nativity, to give it it’s full name, stands at the junction of Lombard Street and King William Street. It is first mentioned in a deed dated 1191 and stands on the site of a Roman temple.
It was rebuilt in 1438 and suffered damage in the great fire which was repaired by Wren. In 1716-17 it was totally rebuilt by Nicholas Hawksmoor. Substantial restoration of the interior was carried out by William Butterfield in 1875-6
In the late 19th. century Bank underground station was amazingly built underneath it. This involved the Victorian engineers removing the crypt. The bodies there were moved to Manor Park Cemetery, including the remains of Edward Lloyd, owner of the cafe’ where Lloyds of London was founded

This small church is hidden away in Lothbury, at the back of the Bank of England. First mentioned in 1197, it was rebuilt in 1440. Yet another of the churches to be destroyed in the fire of 1666, it was rebuilt by Wren in 1686-90. It stood near the course of the long gone Walbrook River.
St. Margaret Lothbury amazingly escaped damage from the blitz of World War II so contains original items from the 17th. century. It also contains other original items salvaged from other churches that were destroyed. It also incorporates the parishes of seven other churches that have been destroyed during the centuries between the fire and World War II.

Saint Helen Bishopsgate takes it’s name from the mother of the first Christian Emperor of Rome, Constantine.
After escaping damage in the Great fire and then again during the war, this ancient building suffered  bomb damage twice by the IRA in the early 1990’s.
The first unusual thing you notice is that it has two entrances side by side. This goes back to the early thirteenth century, when a Benedictine Nunnery was built next to the existing church (the left entrance). This ceased to be in 1538 due to the nuns being found to be a little less pious than they ought to have been!
The interior has had some major renovations from Victorian times and again in the 990’s by Quinlan Terry. It still has many medieval features including the hagioscope, or nun’s squint, through which they could see the church altar.