All Hallows, Bread Street

All Hallows Bread Street
All Hallows Bread Street
Location	Watling Street, London
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Architecture
Architect(s)	Christopher Wren
Style	Baroque
Demolished	1876

Last updated April 07, 2023

All Hallows Bread Street was a parish church in the Bread Street ward of the City of London, England. It stood on the east side of Bread Street, on the corner with Watling Street.^[1] First mentioned in the 13th century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The church was rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren and demolished in 1876.

History

The dedication All Hallows, meaning all saints, suggests a Saxon foundation, although the earliest surviving reference is in a document of 1227. Bread Street runs from Cheapside, the main street and market place of medieval London, "cheap" meaning market. Bread Street was the site of the bread market.

The patronage of the church belonged to the prior and chapter of Christ Church, Canterbury, until 1365, when they granted it to the Archbishop of Canterbury.^[2]

The medieval church

Two separate grants of land to allow the expansion of the church are recorded in 1349 and 1350. Thomas Beaumont, a member of the Salter's company, who died in 1457, founded a chapel on the south side of the chancel, which became known as the "Salter's Chapel", in which he was buried.^[2] The pre-Fire church had a stone spire, which was struck by lightning in 1559. Although not badly damaged, it was taken down to save money on repairs^[2]

In 1551, the church was closed for a month following a fight between two priests, in which blood was drawn. They were obliged to walk barefoot in penance from St Paul's through Cheapside and Cornhill.^[1] In 1555, during the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip, the rector, Laurence Saunders, was burnt at the stake for preaching Protestant doctrine. John Milton was christened in All Hallows Bread Street in 1608. The event is commemorated by a stone plaque now in the churchyard of St Mary-le-Bow.

A donation from a merchant named Ellyot, who died in 1629, funded a sermon to be preached every Thursday afternoon. The practice continued into the 19th century, when it was suspended "for want of a congregation".^[1]

Rebuilding after the Great Fire

After the church's destruction in the Great Fire, the parish was combined with that of St John the Evangelist Friday Street, also destroyed, but not rebuilt. In 1671 a "tabernacle" or temporary church was set up to serve the parishioners of All Hallows and St John's.^[3] The reconstruction of All Hallows began in 1681 and the body of the church was complete by 1684.^[4] In that year, however, the unfinished tower was boarded over and work on it suspended, due to the difficulty Wren was experiencing in paying for the simultaneous completion of several dozen churches, as well as for the ongoing construction of St Paul's Cathedral, from the Coal Tax receipts. A letter from 1697 survives from the then Lord Mayor, Edward Clarke, lobbying Wren to complete the steeple. Coincidentally or not, work recommenced and the tower was finished the next year. The total cost of the church and tower was £4,881. Among the vestry records are accounts for £12 of "florence" wine (probably Chianti) for Wren and £11 for his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor.

The main frontage of the reconstructed church faced north onto Watling Street. It had eight round-headed windows (one of them blind) decorated with carved keystones. The plan of the church was in the shape of a slightly irregular quadrilateral with an annex protruding on the south. The walls were topped by a balustrade.

The rebuilt church was 72 ft long and 35 ft wide. The interior was a single space, undivided by piers or columns. A gallery at the west end, supported by a single column, housed an organ, erected by subscription in 1717.^[1] By the beginning of the 19th century there was also a small gallery on the south side, "somewhat like a balcony or an orchestra in an assembly room",^[1] over the door to the vestry.^[3] At the east end a was a shallow recess, containing the reredos, with the Royal Arms above.^[1]

The steeple, completed 14 years after the rest of the church, was the work of Nicholas Hawksmoor.^[5] The tower was square in plan, the top storey having three arched openings on each side, each with a finely carved mask keystone. It was topped by a balustrade, with four obelisks on corner plinths.^[6] The belfry level beneath this had round headed windows framed by swags. The stage below that, marking the limit of building in 1684, had round windows.

Destruction

The novelist Mary Anna Lupton was among those resident in the parish and married there in 1854, but by the late 19th century the number of parishioners had declined due to the move of the population to the suburbs. The parish of All Hallows Bread Street was combined with that of St Mary-le-Bow in 1876 and the church demolished in 1878, under the Union of Benefices Act 1860. The site and materials were sold for £32,254 and the proceeds used to build All Hallows East India Dock Road. The furnishings were dispersed to several churches – the pulpit is now in St Vedast alias Foster, the organ case in St Mary Abchurch and the font cover in St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe.^[7] Some of the wood panelling was used to clad the new chancel extension of 1890 in the Church of King Charles the Martyr in Tunbridge Wells. This includes two large prayer boards either side of the Altar depicting the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles Creed.

Initially occupied by warehouses, the site is now covered by the Watling Court development of 1977–81.

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References

1 2 3 4 5 6 Godwin, George; John Britton (1839). The Churches of London: A History and Description of the Ecclesiastical Edifices of the Metropolis. London: C. Tilt. Retrieved 18 March 2012.
1 2 3 Newcourt, Richard (1708). Repetorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense. Vol. 1. London. pp. 244–246.
1 2 Malcolm, James Peller (1803). Londinium Redivivium, or, an Ancient History and Modern Description of London. Vol. 2. London. p. 14.
↑ Jeffery, P. (1996). The city churches of Sir Christopher Wren. London: Hambledon Press.
↑ "The London Encyclopaedia" Hibbert,C. ;Weinreb,D.; Keay,J: London, Pan Macmillan, 1983 (rev 1993, 2008) ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5
↑ Cobb, G. (1942). The Old Churches of London. London: Batsford.
↑ Huelin, G. (1996). Vanished churches of the City of London. London: Guildhall Library Publishing. pp. 30–31. ISBN 0-900422-42-4.

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[godwin-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Godwin, George; John Britton (1839). The Churches of London: A History and Description of the Ecclesiastical Edifices of the Metropolis. London: C. Tilt. Retrieved 18 March 2012.

[ric-2] 1 2 3 Newcourt, Richard (1708). Repetorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense. Vol. 1. London. pp. 244–246.

[malc-3] 1 2 Malcolm, James Peller (1803). Londinium Redivivium, or, an Ancient History and Modern Description of London. Vol. 2. London. p. 14.

[4] Jeffery, P. (1996). The city churches of Sir Christopher Wren. London: Hambledon Press.

[5] "The London Encyclopaedia" Hibbert,C. ;Weinreb,D.; Keay,J: London, Pan Macmillan, 1983 (rev 1993, 2008) ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5

[6] Cobb, G. (1942). The Old Churches of London. London: Batsford.

[7] Huelin, G. (1996). Vanished churches of the City of London. London: Guildhall Library Publishing. pp. 30–31. ISBN 0-900422-42-4.

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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