All Hallows Bread Street was a
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...
in the
Bread Street ward of the
City of London
The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
, England. It stood on the east side of Bread Street, on the corner with Watling Street.
[ First mentioned in the 13th century, the church was destroyed in the ]Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Wednesday 5 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old London Wall, Roman city wall, while also extendi ...
in 1666. The church was rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; – ) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was acc ...
and demolished in 1876.
History
The dedication ''All Hallows'', meaning all saints, suggests a Saxon foundation, although the earliest surviving reference is in a document of 1227. Bread Street runs from Cheapside
Cheapside is a street in the City of London, the historic and modern financial centre of London, England, which forms part of the A40 road, A40 London to Fishguard road. It links St Martin's Le Grand with Poultry, London, Poultry. Near its eas ...
, the main street and market place of medieval London, "cheap" meaning market. Bread Street was the site of the bread market.
The patronage of the church belonged to the prior and chapter of Christ Church, Canterbury, until 1365, when they granted it to the Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
.[
]
The medieval church
Two separate grants of land to allow the expansion of the church are recorded in 1349 and 1350. Thomas Beaumont, a member of the Salter's company, who died in 1457, founded a chapel on the south side of the chancel, which became known as the "Salter's Chapel", in which he was buried. The pre-Fire church had a stone spire, which was struck by lightning in 1559. Although not badly damaged, it was taken down to save money on repairs[
In 1551, the church was closed for a month following a fight between two priests, in which blood was drawn. They were obliged to walk barefoot in penance from ]St Paul's
St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...
through
Cheapside and Cornhill.[ In 1555, during the reign of ]Queen Mary I
Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She made vigorous a ...
and King Philip, the rector, Laurence Saunders
Laurence Saunders (1519 – 8 February 1555) was an English Protestant martyr whose story is recorded in '' Foxe's Book of Martyrs''.
Early life
Saunders was the son of Thomas Saunders (d. 1528) of Sibbertoft, Northamptonshire, by Margaret, the ...
, was burnt at the stake for preaching Protestant doctrine. John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...
was christened in All Hallows Bread Street in 1608. The event is commemorated by a stone plaque now in the churchyard of St Mary-le-Bow.
A donation from a merchant named Ellyot, who died in 1629, funded a sermon to be preached every Thursday afternoon. The practice continued into the 19th century, when it was suspended "for want of a congregation".[
]
Rebuilding after the Great Fire
After the church's destruction in the Great Fire, the parish was combined with that of St John the Evangelist Friday Street
St John the Evangelist Friday Street was a church (building), church in Bread Street Ward of the City of London. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666, and not rebuilt, the parish being united with that of All Hallows, Bread Stree ...
, also destroyed, but not rebuilt. In 1671 a "tabernacle" or temporary church
was set up to serve the parishioners of All Hallows and St John's. The reconstruction of All Hallows began in 1681 and the body of the church was complete by 1684. In that year, however, the unfinished tower was boarded over and work on it suspended, due to the difficulty Wren was experiencing in paying for the simultaneous completion of several dozen churches, as well as for the ongoing construction of St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...
, from the Coal Tax receipts. A letter from 1697 survives from the then Lord Mayor, Edward Clarke, lobbying Wren to complete the steeple. Coincidentally or not, work recommenced and the tower was finished the next year. The total cost of the church and tower was £4,881. Among the vestry records are accounts for £12 of "florence" wine (probably Chianti
Chianti is an Italian red wine produced in the Chianti (region), Chianti region of central Tuscan wine, Tuscany, principally from the Sangiovese grape. It was historically associated with a squat bottle enclosed in a straw basket, called a ''fia ...
) for Wren and £11 for his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor
Nicholas Hawksmoor ( – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principal architects ...
.
The main frontage of the reconstructed church faced north onto Watling Street. It had eight round-headed windows (one of them blind) decorated with carved keystones. The plan of the church was in the shape of a slightly irregular quadrilateral with an annex protruding on the south. The walls were topped by a balustrade
A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...
.
The rebuilt church was 72 ft long and 35 ft wide. The interior was a single space, undivided by piers or columns. A gallery at the west end, supported by a single column, housed an organ, erected by subscription in 1717.[ By the beginning of the 19th century there was also a small gallery on the south side, "somewhat like a balcony or an orchestra in an assembly room",][ over the door to the vestry.][ At the east end was a shallow recess, containing the ]reredos
A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images.
The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...
, with the Royal Arms above.
The steeple, completed 14 years after the rest of the church, was the work of Nicholas Hawksmoor. The tower was square in plan, the top storey having three arched openings on each side, each with a finely carved mask keystone. It was topped by a balustrade, with four obelisks on corner plinths. The belfry level beneath this had round headed windows framed by swags. The stage below that, marking the limit of building in 1684, had round windows.
Destruction
The novelist Mary Anna Lupton was among those resident in the parish and married there in 1854, but by the late 19th century the number of parishioners had declined due to the move of the population to the suburbs. The parish of All Hallows Bread Street was combined with that of St Mary-le-Bow
The Church of St Mary-le-Bow () is a Church of England parish church in the City of London, England. Located on Cheapside, one of the city's oldest thoroughfares, the church was founded in 1080, by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury. Rebuilt s ...
in 1876 and the church demolished in 1878, under the Union of Benefices Act 1860
The Union of Benefices Act 1860 ( 23 & 24 Vict. c. 142) was legislation which prevented the need for other acts if following its prescribed three-stage scheme. It enabled reduction of the number of parish churches and vicars/rectors in London's ...
. The site and materials were sold for £32,254 and the proceeds used to build All Hallows East India Dock
The East India Docks were a group of docks in Blackwall in east London, north-east of the Isle of Dogs. Today only the entrance basin and listed perimeter wall remain visible.
History Early history
Following the successful creation of the ...
Road. The furnishings were dispersed to several churches – the pulpit is now in St Vedast alias Foster
Saint Vedast Foster Lane or Saint Vedast-alias-Foster, a church in Foster Lane, in the City of London, is dedicated to St. Vedast (Foster is an Anglicisation of the name "Vaast", as the saint is known in continental Europe), a French saint whos ...
, the organ case in St Mary Abchurch
St Mary Abchurch is a Church of England church off Cannon Street in the City of London. Dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is first mentioned in 1198–1199. The medieval church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and replac ...
and the font cover in
St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe. Some of the wood panelling was used to clad the new chancel extension of 1890 in the Church of King Charles the Martyr in Tunbridge Wells. This includes two large prayer boards either side of the Altar depicting the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles Creed.
Initially occupied by warehouses, the site is now covered by the Watling Court development of 1977–81.
See also
* List of Christopher Wren churches in London
Sir Christopher Wren was 33 years old and near the beginning of his career as an architect when the Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed many of the city's public buildings, including 88 of its parish churches. Wren's office was commissioned to ...
*
References
External links
{{Coord, 51.5131, -0.0951, type:landmark_region:GB-LND, display=title
1878 disestablishments in England
Buildings and structures demolished in 1878
Christopher Wren church buildings in London
Churches rebuilt after the Great Fire of London but since demolished
Churches in the City of London
Demolished churches in London