London No. 78

Allen (1839?) writes: "This was the church belonging to the convent of Grey-Friars, or Franciscans, which falling to the crown at the dissolution of that religious house, king Henry VIII, gave it to the mayor, commonalty and citizens, of London, to make a parish church thereof […] it was consecrated in the year 1325 […] It was burnt down in 1666, by the great fire of London". The new edifice was, as Blatch (1995) notes, "a fine church and one of Wren's most expensive. Built between 1677 and 1691on the site of the chancel of the Franciscan Greyfriars church, the steeple was erected between 1701 and 1704 […] incendiaries fell on the church in 1940. It was not rebuilt […] The steeple, however -- 'one of the most splendid in London' according to Pevsner, survived and was restored […] in 1960". Allen (ibid.) reports a font in the new, late-17th century church: "situated in a pew near the south west angle of the church, it is handsome composition of statuary marble, richly carved with cherubic heads, foliage, and fruit, in alto relievo, the pedestal is a vase of the same material, the cover of oak has a small gilt statue of an angel with a palm branch." Blatch (1995), in his entry for the Church of St. Sepulchre without Newgate, writes: "At the north end of the vestibule is a finely carved cover of 1690 on a white pedestal which at one time was in Christ Church, Newgate but which was rescued from the burning building by an unknown postman on the night of the 30th/31st December 1940 raid" [NB: it is assumed that the font of the Franciscan church has disappeared]