London No. 76

Allen (1839?) writes: "This church […] was founded about the year one thousand and ninety, by Alfune, the first master of St. Batholomew's hospital. The old church was destroyed by fire, in the year 1545, after which the present structure was erected, and is one of the few that fortunately escaped the dreadful conflagration in 1666 […] The font, situated in a pew below the western portion of the gallery, is a circular white marble on a balluster; the oak cover is cover is a neat model of a circular Corinthian church, surrounded by columns, with niches in the interlocumniations". Blatch (1995) notes: "Font and cover. The marble font and cover […] came from St Luke's [Old Street]. The cover is a delightful, octagonal domed structure with pilasters at the angles surmounted by an entablature, and garlands in octagonal panels below." [NB: Blatch (ibid.) notes that "St Luke's was one of Fifty New Churches under the 1711 Act […] was built of Portland stone between 1727 and 1733. The building bacame dangerous and in 1959 was closed, dismantled and unroofed, leaving the walls and the unsusual steeple" -- though Allen (ibid.) does not mention the font's origin, it must have been in place by the time of his writing [i.e., pre-1839] -- we have no information on any of the previous fonts of this church].