All-Hallows-the-Great

All-Hallows-the-Great
All-Hallows-the-Great
Location	Upper Thames Street, London
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Anglican
Architecture
Architect(s)	Christopher Wren
Style	Baroque
Demolished	1894

Last updated June 28, 2024

All-Hallows-the-Great was a church in the City of London, located on what is now Upper Thames Street, first mentioned in 1235.^[1] Destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666, the church was rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. All-Hallows-the-Great was demolished in 1894^[2] when many bodies were disinterred from the churchyard and reburied at Brookwood Cemetery.^[3]

History

All Hallows (meaning "All Saints") was one of eight churches in London having the same dedication. The church's suffix was given to distinguish it from another All Hallows located above a gate in a large house nearby, which was known as All-Hallows-the-Less.

The earliest surviving reference is in a charter of Bishop Gilbert of London in 1100–07, as Omnium Sanctorum in London quae dicitur Semannesire (All Saints that is called Seamen's church, in London). Other early records refer to the church by a number of names, including All Hallows the More, All Hallows Thames Street, All Hallows in the Hay and All Hallows in the Ropery. According to John Stow, the latter descriptions were given because hay was sold at the nearby Hay Wharf and ropes were made in the high street.

All-Hallows-the-Great was also the church of the German community of the nearby Steelyard, since the Hanseatic community had only a chapel of their own on the Steelyard premises. The church was sufficiently large to include a large cloister on its south side and accommodate a grammar school, founded by Henry VI in 1447.

During the Commonwealth, All-Hallows-the-Great was a centre for the Fifth Monarchy Men, a millenarian sect that preached the coming of the reign of saints following the demise of the fifth rule of kings, as prophesied in the Book of Daniel. The recent beheading of Charles I, and the looming of the year 1666 was interpreted as a sign that the end of the fifth rule of kings was nigh.^[4] The effect of the radical doctrine on the congregation may be surmised by Samuel Pepys's account of their setting up the Royal coat of arms of Charles II, one month before the Restoration. After the Restoration, however, the parish petitioned the Archbishop for the retention of Robert Bragge, the Commonwealth incumbent, who they claimed was "sound in doctrine and of a holy conversation."

After the church's destruction in the Great Fire, the parish was combined with that of All-Hallows-the-Less. In 1669, the joint parishes erected a temporary structure in the churchyard of All-Hallows-the-Great in which to hold services while the body of the church was being restored.^[5] This was the first of 27 tabernacles erected in the City of London in the years immediately following the Fire, from funds collected from the coal tax, for the temporary use of parishes. Two of the parishes (St. Mary Somerset and St. Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe) waited 22 years after the Fire before their churches were complete. The church of All-Hallows-the-Great was rebuilt between 1677 and 1684 at a cost of £5,641. A watch house was later built in the churchyard as a precaution against grave robbers.

By the eighteenth century, traffic on Thames Street was such that passing cart-wheels almost touched the north wall of the church. Traffic in the City increased as the local population decreased during the latter half of the nineteenth century, with the development of the suburbs and the conversion of the City to a place of work. The tower and north aisle of All-Hallows-the-Great were demolished in 1876 so that Upper Thames Street could be widened. A new tower was built on the south, but in 1894, the rest of the church was demolished, the furnishings dispersed and the parish combined with that of St. Michael Paternoster Royal. Sale of the site realised £13,129, which was used to build All Hallows, Gospel Oak.

The City of London Brewery was built on the site. This was destroyed during the Second World War. The churchyard and rebuilt tower survived until 1964. The location was then occupied by Mondial House, completed in 1975 as the largest telephone exchange in Europe. This, in turn, was demolished in 2006, to make way for low-level office development now known as Watermark Place

Architecture

The church was a slightly irregular rectangle with exposed north and west frontages. The exterior was plain and the number of visits made by Robert Hooke to the site suggest that it was his design. The tower survived the Fire and long before work on the church began, molten bell metal was salvaged from the church's ruins and recast into a new bell. This was hung in the old tower in 1671. The effects of the Fire belatedly became evident in its structure, as it was taken down and rebuilt in 1684. It was plain, with round headed windows and a balustrade.

The request sent by the Church Commissioners to Wren that "the Tower of All Hallows-the-Great be forthwith finished with a cupola or spire as you shall best approve of, by reason it stands conspicuous to the Thames" was never acted upon.

The church was rich in furnishings, many of which survive in other churches. It was one of two Wren churches to have a rood screen, commissioned by the parish after seeing that erected for St Peter upon Cornhill (the tradition that it was a gift from a member of the German merchant community is without foundation). Installed in the church at the time it was completed, it can now be seen in St Margaret Lothbury.

At its completion, it was the only Wren church to have contemporary non-memorial statues.^{[ clarification needed ]} The life size images of Moses and Aaron flanking the Decalogue on the reredos are now in St Michael Paternoster Royal, which also received the lectern (now stolen) and the chandelier. The former pulpit of All-Hallows-the-Great is now in St. Paul's Hammersmith.

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References

↑ Christopher Hibbert, Ben Weinreb & John Keay, The London Encyclopaedia. London, Pan Macmillan, 1983 (rev 1993, 2008) ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5
↑ John Betjeman, The City of London Churches Andover: Pitkin, 1967 ISBN 0-85372-112-2
↑ J. M. Clarke, The Brookwood Necroplois Railway. Oasdale, Usk, 2006 ISBN 978-0-85361-655-9
↑ "The Fifth Monarchy". Archived from the original on 3 October 2006. Retrieved 25 December 2006.
↑ Cobb, G. The Old Churches of London. London, Batsford, 1942

Sources

Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert (eds). The London Encyclopedia, Macmillan, 1992
Henry Harben, A Dictionary of London, Herbert Jenkins Ltd., 1918
Paul Jeffery, The City Churches of Sir Christopher Wren, Hambledon Press, 1996
Gerald Cobb, London City Churches, B T Batsford Ltd., 1977
Gordon Heulin, Vanished churches of the City of London, Guildhall Library Publications, 1996

External links

Media related to All Hallows the Great at Wikimedia Commons

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[1] Christopher Hibbert, Ben Weinreb & John Keay, The London Encyclopaedia. London, Pan Macmillan, 1983 (rev 1993, 2008) ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5

[2] John Betjeman, The City of London Churches Andover: Pitkin, 1967 ISBN 0-85372-112-2

[3] J. M. Clarke, The Brookwood Necroplois Railway. Oasdale, Usk, 2006 ISBN 978-0-85361-655-9

[4] "The Fifth Monarchy". Archived from the original on 3 October 2006. Retrieved 25 December 2006.

[5] Cobb, G. The Old Churches of London. London, Batsford, 1942

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v t e Churches in the City of London
extant churches	All Hallows-by-the-Tower All Hallows-on-the-Wall City Temple Dutch Church, Austin Friars St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe St Andrew, Holborn St Andrew Undershaft St Anne and St Agnes St Bartholomew-the-Great St Bartholomew-the-Less St Benet, Paul's Wharf St Botolph, Aldersgate St Botolph, Aldgate St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate St Bride, Fleet Street St Clement, Eastcheap St Dunstan-in-the-West St Edmund, King and Martyr St Ethelburga, Bishopsgate St Giles, Cripplegate St Helen, Bishopsgate St James, Garlickhythe St Katharine Cree St Lawrence Jewry St Magnus the Martyr St Margaret Lothbury St Margaret Pattens St Martin, Ludgate St Mary Abchurch St Mary Aldermary St Mary Moorfields St Mary Woolnoth St Mary-at-Hill St Mary-le-Bow St Michael, Cornhill St Michael, Paternoster Royal St Nicholas, Cole Abbey St Olave, Hart Street St Paul's Cathedral St Peter upon Cornhill St Sepulchre-without-Newgate St Stephen Walbrook St Vedast alias Foster Temple Church
churches of which only the tower remains	All Hallows Staining Christ Church, Greyfriars St Alban, Wood Street St Alphage London Wall St Augustine, Watling Street St Dunstan-in-the-East St Martin Orgar St Mary Somerset St Olave, Old Jewry
churches rebuilt after the Great Fire but since demolished	All Hallows Bread Street All Hallows Lombard Street All-Hallows-the-Great St Antholin, Budge Row St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange St Benet Fink St Benet Gracechurch St Christopher le Stocks St Dionis Backchurch St George Botolph Lane St Katherine Coleman St Mary Aldermanbury St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street St Matthew Friday Street St Michael Bassishaw St Michael, Crooked Lane St Michael Queenhithe St Michael Wood Street St Mildred, Bread Street St Mildred, Poultry St Stephen Coleman Street St Swithin, London Stone
churches destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt	All Hallows Honey Lane All-Hallows-the-Less Holy Trinity the Less St Andrew Hubbard St Ann Blackfriars St Benet Sherehog St Botolph Billingsgate St Faith under St Paul's St Gabriel Fenchurch St Gregory by St Paul's St John the Baptist upon Walbrook St John the Evangelist Friday Street St John Zachary St Laurence Pountney St Leonard, Eastcheap St Leonard, Foster Lane St Margaret Moses St Margaret, New Fish Street St Martin Pomary St Martin Vintry St Mary Bothaw St Mary Colechurch St Mary Magdalen Milk Street St Mary Mounthaw St Mary Staining St Mary Woolchurch Haw St Michael-le-Querne St Nicholas Acons St Nicholas Olave St Olave, Silver Street St Pancras, Soper Lane St Peter, Paul's Wharf St Peter, Westcheap St Thomas the Apostle
other former churches	College of Minor Canons Holy Trinity Gough Square Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate Hospital of St Thomas of Acre Old St Paul's Cathedral St Audoen within Newgate St Augustine Papey St James Duke's Place St Martin Outwich St Mary Axe St Nicholas Shambles St Peter le Poer