News from Friends of the City Churches

Although many City churches have been destroyed over the years, St. Antholin’s, demolished in 1874/5 is, perhaps, the greatest loss, Tony Tucker writes.

This church, widely regarded as one of Wren’s finest, stood on the corner of Sise Lane and Budge Row/Watling Street, roughly on the site now occupied by the Temple of Mithras, before the building of Queen Victoria Street.

St. Antholin (a corruption of St. Anthony) was dedicated to St. Anthony of Egypt, who lived as a hermit in the desert, dying in 356AD, aged 105. The church was known, over the years, by a great many different names, ranging from "St. Tauntlin" to "St. Ancelyne in Bogerowe".

First mentioned in 1119, the church was rebuilt by two Lord Mayors, Thomas Knowles in 1400 and John Tate in 1514. After the Great Fire, the new church was designed by Wren and completed in 1688. It was of brick construction, with Portland stone facings. The spire (one of Wren’s few true spires and the only stone one) was octagonal. The interior was an elongated octagon, with eight columns supporting an oval dome, elaborately decorated in plaster by Henry Doogood, who was also responsible for the fan vaulting in St. Mary Aldermary.

From Elizabethan times, St. Antholin’s was known as a hotbed of Puritanism and the radical Antholin lectures became famous, continuing until the 1970s at St. Mary Aldermary.

In 1874/5, because of falling congregations and the need to build new churches in the rapidly growing suburbs, St. Antholin’s was demolished. However, in 1829, the upper part of the spire had been replaced and the portion taken down sold for £5 to Robert Harrild, a printer, who had it erected on his property, Round Hill House in Sydenham. It can still be seen today, though now surrounded by a cul-de-sac of modern town houses. The 17th century reredos was transferred in 1874 to the new church of St. Anthony in Nunhead and again, recently, to the nearby church of St. Anthony with St. Silas, built in 2003. It is remarkably beautiful, with exceptionally fine carving, clearly the work of Wren’s finest craftsmen.

A bas-relief tablet, erected on the corner of Budge Row to commemorate St. Antholin, was set into the outside south wall of St. Mary Aldermary in 2000, where it can be seen today.

Friends of the City Churches, St Magnus the Martyr, Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6DN tel 020 7626 1555

e-mail      www.london-city-churches.org.uk