Another in the occasional series on churches built by Wren after the Great Fire of 1666 that have been lost since …
St Christopher-le-Stocks was originally built around 1225, and added to in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, badly damaged in the Great Fire of 1666, and rebuilt by Wren, in 1669-71, using some surviving materials, and by Dickinson, in 1711-4, only to be demolished in 1781, to allow for improvements to the security of the Bank of England after the previous year’s Gordon Riots, wherepon the parish was merged with St Margaret Lothbury.
Only parish boundary markers survive at its former site.
St Bartholomew by the Exchange, St Christopher le Stocks and St Margaret Lothbury parish boundary markers, Bank of England
Some salvaged interior fittings survive in St Margaret Lothbury, including the bronze head by Hubert le Sueur (who also made the equestrian statue of Charles I at Charing Cross), and the paintings of Moses and Aaron. The salvaged reredos survives in St Vedast-alias-Foster (and the pulpit in St Nicholas in Canewdon in Essex). A thirteenth-century gravestone, discovered during the rebuilding of the Bank in 1934, can be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The site of the church is visited on our “Lost Wren churches” themed special.
Further details of all our walks are available in the “Guided Walks” section of this web-site.
Bookings may be made through the “Contact/Booking” section of the web-site, by e-mail (lostcityoflondon@sky.com), or by phone (020-8998-3051).
