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The Guild Church of St Mary Aldermary - London, Watling Street (58 - 60)

Guild Church of St Mary Aldermary

Situated at 69 Watling St, London, EC4N 4SJ

 

There has been a church on this for about 900 years. The patronage belonged to the Prior and Chapter of Canterbury and was later transferred to the Archbishop in 1400.

Sir Henry Keeble paid for the building of a new church in 1510, but he died in 1518 leaving the tower still to be finished. It wasn’t until 1629 where two legacies enabled the church to be completed by 1632.

Poor Henry Keeble what was supposed to be his resting place, his dream was short-lived. His mortal remains were removed to be replaced by those of Two Lord Mayors, Sir William Laxton and Sir Thomas Lodge. To add insult to injury, his monument was also destroyed.

The church was badly damaged by the Great Fire of London in 1666, the tower and parts of its walls survived. A gentleman called Henry Rogers had left a legacy of £5,000 of which his widow had stipulated that the church should be rebuilt as a replica of the old one.

Sir Christopher Wren did the majority of the rebuilding in the ‘Gothic’ style. Pevsner writes ‘It is the chief surviving monument of 17th century Gothic revival in the City’.

Another church that was destroyed in the Great Fire ‘St Thomas the Apostle’ was now united with St Mary’s. St Thomas’s was not rebuilt.

 

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Uploaded on June 18, 2020
Taken on September 18, 2014