One of the best places to explore old parish boundary markers in the City is Cheapside. In medieval times, Cheapside was a bustling marketplace; it’s wide street filled with hawkers, pedlars and shops of all kinds. It is still one of the main shopping centres of the City with the huge New Change mall at one end. The developers of New Change have gone out of their way to mount old parish boundary markers on the shiny glass and steel walls of their buildings in an extraordinary juxtaposition of the medieval and the modern.
If you walk down Cheapside you cross the boundaries of nine different parishes in a stroll of a mere 500 yards as you can see in the extract from our ancient parishes guide below. You might wonder why there are so many in such a short space. The answer is that churches could collect tithes (community taxes) from houses and shops inside their parish. Since Cheapside was such a rich commercial centre, every church wanted to own a piece of it. You see the same effect in the Thames riverfront parishes, which tend to be long and thin, each church claiming a small bit of the busy docks and wharfs.
The map below illustrates the location of all the parish boundary markers in the vicinity. Match the numbers to the photos below and see what they look like. A large version of this map is available here
19. Blue Plaque of St Mary Woolchurch Haw near Bank tube
18. Boundary Markers for St Olave Jewry and St Martin Pomeroy in Fredericks Place
17. Boundary Marker for St Vedast Foster Lane in Cheapside
16. Boundary markers for St Peter Westcheap and St Matthew Friday Street
15. Blue plaque for St Pancras Soper Lane
14. Blue Plaque for St Mildred Poultry
13. Boundary markers for St Matthew Friday Street and St Vedast alias Foster
12. Blue plaque for St Mary Colechurch
11. Boundary markers for St Martin Pomeroy and St Mary Colechurch
10. Boundary markers for St Mary Magdalene Milk Street and All Hallows Bread Street
9. Boundary marker for St John the Evangelist in New Change
8. Boundary marker for All Hallows Honey Lane and St Mary le Bow
7. Boundary markers for St Mary Magdalene Milk Street and All Hallows Honey Lane
6. Boundary markers for St Mary Aldermary and All Hallows Bread Street
5. Boundary markers for St Peter Westcheap and All Hallows Bread Street
4. Boundary markers for St Faith under St Paul’s
3. Blue plaque for St Benet Sherehog
2. A view of the remaining tower of St Augustine Watling Street
- Plaque commemorating St Antholin on the wall of St Mary Aldermary
… this is sensationally interesting – and well documented. I had not realised that the City lanes and streets held so many remnants of the past …
Pingback: All the Marys - Lost London Churches Project