Lost London Churches Blog

This lost church stood at the corner of Fish Street Hill and Eastcheap. The first mention of St Leonard Eastcheap was in 1177 in the reign of King John. In John Stow’s survey of London he says it was called St Leonard Milke Church after the builder William Melker: “Up higher on this hill is […]

The first mention of the church of St Laurence Pountney is in 1067 when it is called “St Laurence cum cimiterio”. In 1275 it is recorded as “St Laurence by the Thames”. The name “Pountney”  became associated with the church around 1334 when John de Poulteney erected the chapel of Corpus Christi and College of […]

This lost church stood on the north side of Maiden Lane at the junction with Noble street. It is one of the three lost churches in the City that were dedicated to St John. There is some disagreement over the origin of the name ‘Zachary’. The priest Zachariah is venerated in both Christianity and Islam […]

The lost church of St John the Evangelist stood on the east side of Friday Street at its junction with Watling Street, in Bread Street Ward. It seems its original dedication was to St Werburgh. She was an Anglo-Saxon princess, born ca 650 AD, who became a nun at the convent founded by her great […]

The earliest mention of this church was in 1162 as “St. John upon Walebroc” and the west end of the church stood right on the banks of the river Walbrook. This river which ran right through the centre of the City of London was the main water supply for the Romans. The Temple of Mithras […]

St Gregory by St Pauls – as the name suggests –  was a parish church right next to Old St Pauls Cathedral. There is some uncertainty as to what it looked like. The Agas map from 1555 shows a traditional square towered church building – but many other churches on the map look exactly the […]

The lost church of Saint Gabriel Fenchurch is unusual as it has had three different names in the past.  The earliest reference is from the 13th century under the name  All Hallows Fenchurch, but between the 13th and 16th century, it seems to have been called St Mary Fenchurch and it is not until 1526 […]

The church of St Faith was originally a separate building from St Paul’s cathedral and was the parish church the stationers who lived in St Pauls churchyard and for the residents of the nearby street of Paternoster Row. The dedication is to St. Faith, the virgin martyr of Aquitaine, who suffered martyrdom in the time […]

The lost church of St Botolph Billingsgate is one of four that were dedicated to that Saint; only the other three still remain. The churches to St Botolph at Aldersgate , Bishopsgate and Aldgate all stood just outside gates in the old Roman walls of the city. These gates were only demolished in the 1760s. […]

St Ann Blackfriars started as a parish chapel in the Priory of the Blackfriars (Dominicans) on the banks of the River Fleet. When the Priory was dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1550, the buildings on the site were largely demolished. However, the residents still needed a parish church so a new one was established […]