The last in the series on the historic churches of the out-parishes of London …

By the time of the Great Fire of London in 1666, there were over a hundred parish churches and other places of Christian worship within and immediately without the walls of  the City. There were a further twelve  in the out-parishes of Middlesex (north of the river) and Surrey (south of the river).

Stepney Church (St Dunstan and All Saints) was originally built in the Saxon or early Medieval period, and subsequently rebuilt in the later Medieval.  It is known as “The Mother Church of the East End”, and also as “The Church of the High Seas”, on account of the area’s maritime association.  

There is a surviving Saxon rood cross in the interior. 

As might be expected, there are also a number of memorials to seafarers and ancillary tradespeople.  

During the Great Plague of 1665, there were 6583 plague deaths in the parish, more than in any other parish in London.