St Gregory's by St Paul's was a parish church in the Castle Baynard ward of the City of London, built against the south-west tower 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 ...

. It 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 and not replaced.

History

The church was dedicated to St Gregory the Great. It was in existence by 1010, when the body of King Edmund the Martyr was housed there. The remains of the king, martyred in 870, had been translated to London from

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as ''Bury,'' is a cathedral as well as market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk District, West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St. Edmunds an ...

by Alwyn, later

Bishop of Elmham The Bishop of Norwich is the Ordinary (Catholic Church), ordinary of the Church of England Anglican Diocese of Norwich, Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers most of the county of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. Th ...

in Norfolk, for safe-keeping during a period of Danish raids, and were returned there three years later. The patronage of the church originally belonged to the crown, but during the reign of Henry VI it was transferred to the minor canons of St Paul's. Between June and November 1571, services were transferred from St Paul's to St Gregory's while fire damage was being repaired in the cathedral. On 19 December 1591, Elizabeth Baldry, wife of the 2nd Baron Rich and mother-in-law to

Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich Penelope Rich, Lady Rich, later styled Penelope Blount (''née'' Devereux; January 1563 – 7 July 1607) was an English court office holder. She served as lady-in-waiting to the English queen Anne of Denmark. She was the sister of Robert Devere ...

, was buried at St Gregory's.

Dispute with Inigo Jones

The existence of the church came under threat while

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was an English architect who was the first significant Architecture of England, architect in England in the early modern era and the first to employ Vitruvius, Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmet ...

was remodelling the cathedral in the 17th century. At first he thought that he could accommodate St Gregory's in his plans, writing in a report, dated 11 June 1631, that "the church is in no way hurtful to the foundations or walls of St. Paul's, nor will it take away the beauty of the aspect when it shall be repaired. It abuts on the Lollards' Tower , which is joined on the other side by another tower, unto which the Bishop's hall adjoins. Conscious that neither of them is any hindrance to the beauty of the church." Over the next few years the parishioners spent a considerable sum on the fabric of the church: Robert Seymour mentions a sum of more than £2000 being spent in 1631–2, while in 1641 the ''Journal of the House of Commons'' recorded that more than £1500 had been spent on beautifying the building "four years since". By 1641, however, Jones had changed his mind, and decided that his renovation of the cathedral necessitated the removal of St Gregory's. Once demolition had begun, Jones ordered the parishioners to take down the remainder. According to their account, he threatened that if they did not take down the rest of it, "then the galleries should be sawed down and with screws the materials thrown down into the street." The threat having proved ineffective he said "that if they did not take down the said church, they should be laid by the heels." The parishioners complained to the

House of Commons of England The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England (which Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542, incorporated Wales) from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was re ...

, and the Commons passed their complaint on to the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

, appending a declaration that the parishioners deserved redress, and that action should be taken against Jones for the destruction. The Lords decided against Jones and the church was rebuilt using stones intended for the cathedral.

John Hewitt

In June 1658, a minister of the church, Dr John Hewitt, a royalist, was executed for high treason. He was beheaded on Tower Hill by order of Cromwell's high court and buried in the church.

Destruction

The church and the cathedral were destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666. The church was not rebuilt; the parish was instead united with that of St Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street, a church which has also now been demolished.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Gregory By St Pauls 1666 disestablishments in England Churches destroyed in the Great Fire of London and not rebuilt Churches in the City of London Former buildings and structures in the City of London