The lost church of St Christopher le Stocks

The lost church of St Christopher le Stocks stood on the current site of the Bank of England. The first written record of the church is from 1282. The name comes from the “Stocks Market” – a market for meat and vegetables which was held at the site of what is now Mansion House where there were a set of stocks for punishment. The original church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 but we have some idea of what it looked like from the Agas map of 1560 and the Hollar Panorama. It was rebuilt by Wren in 1671 but demolished some hundred years later in 1781 to make space for the expanding Bank of England. The human remind from that churchyard were reburied in Nunhead Cemetery – see the memorial slab that marks the spot below

Sub Hoc Saxo

Civium Londinensium Reliquiae

Subter Aedem Jamoudum Dirutam

Sancti Christopher le Stocks

Olim Sepultae Bis Exhumatae Tandem Requiescum

A.S MDCCCLXVII

Which translates as:

Under This Stone

Relics of the Citizens of London

Beneath the building destroyed a long time ago

Saint Christopher le Stocks

Once Buried Twice Exhumed Finally at Rest

AD 1867

St Christopher le Stocks memorial in Nunhill Cemetery
St Christopher le Stocks memorial in Nunhill Cemetery