The Lost London Churches Project aims to promote interest in the ancient church buildings and parishes of the City of London through collectable cards, books, maps and explorers walks.
The Lost London Churches Project has been running for almost 2 years now and we have distributed 20,000 collectable cards to the general public over that time. For collectors out there, be warned! In a few months time, these cards will only be available on line from this site since they are a limited edition. If you have spares or duplicates please put them in the little card trays in the churches. Get collecting now …
Use this website to….
- Explore the ancient parishes of the City with free downloadable guided walks on Google Maps. Your GPS will keep you on the right path
- Go on an ecclesiastical treasure hunt by spotting blue plaques and parish boundary markers hiding in plain sight on the walls of modern buildings
- Order a map of the ancient parishes of the city
- Buy a complete set of cards from our online shop
- Buy the presentation pack to keep your cards in
- Read our Lost London Churches Blog
- Join our Facebook Page to meet other collectors and swap cards
- Trace the history of the religious houses lost in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1540s
The Lost Churches of the City of London
In 1600 there were 110 churches in the square mile of the City of London. Many were lost in the Great Fire of 1666 and many others have been lost since. Today there are only 40 left. We have published a series of collectable cards with illustrations of these City of London Churches, both extant and lost. An accompanying book with maps of each parish and a place to stick the cards has also been produced. Even though the church buildings were lost you can still find traces of these parishes in the old parish boundary markers that are sprinkled around the city. Go on one of our walks to discover them
We know what these lost churches looked like from early maps and panoramas of the city. These include the Wyngaerde Panorama, the Visscher Panorama, the Hollar Panorama, the Copperplate map of 1555 and the Agas map of 1560. These all show the city before the Great Fire.
The collectible cards are in the old ‘cigarette card’ format with a picture of the church on the front and historical notes on the back. They are available in the city churches – here is a list of some of them. You can pick them up when you visit them or you can order them here from our online shop. We also have a presentation pack to house your collection. Also, why not join our Facebook page as a follower – you can post requests to other members if you want to swap some of your duplicate cards
Here a sample page from the book. The parish area is shown in colour on the map and the churches shown in pink. The cards, once collected, can be stuck in the book in the appropriate places shown in outline. The book is standard B4 size (250 x 353 mm). The limited edition book is now out of stock but you may be able to buy some remaining copies if you go to the church of All Hallows by the Tower in person.
A Sample page from the Collector’s Book
If you want to order specific cards you need to quote the name and number of the church of interest which you will find in the church index here. Aside from the Lost London Churches Project, if you want to dig deeper into the history of these churches there are some other excellent websites. If you want to get more involved then why not join the Friends of The City Churches Charity . Also Wikipedia has some very good resources which you can find here. The very best website for those interested in British churches is the National Churches Trust and I urge you to visit their site
Special offer…St Pauls’s Print Mount
If you would like a print mount to display the two St Pauls Cards then contact me and I will email you the template. I will send you a black and white pdf with a background image onto which you can stick the two cards. It ends up looking like the image below. Please note – you will have to buy your own frame. The dimensions are 10cm by 15cm ( 4″ by 6″) but you can get these very cheaply as it is a standard size.
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