Lost London Churches Blog

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 […]

The church of Saint Andrew Hubbard is of late Anglo-Saxon origin but the first written mention of “St. Andrew by Estchepe” was in 1169. It is possible that the church was built on the site of a Roman temple because when the site was excavated, the walls seemed to be of Roman workmanship and fragments […]

The medieval church of All Hallows Honey Lane was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was not rebuilt unlike many others and the parish was combined with the the nearbychurch of St Mary le Bow. However Honey Lane is still there. Its entrance is marked by a carving of a honey […]

St Mary Bothaw is a church that was lost in the Great Fire of London and not rebuilt. It stood at the current site of Cannon Street Station – which was called Candlewick Street back then. The name “Bothaw” is reckoned to be derived from “Boat Haw” or Boat House as it would have been […]