London No. 90

Allen (1839?) reports that "the patronage of this rectory was anciently in the prior and canons of Canterbury, who, in 1365, granted it to Simon their archbishop, and his successors"; that building, however, notes Allen (ibid.) from a plaque in the south porch, suffered much in the Great Fire of 1666, and "was repaired by sir Christopher Wren"; Allen (ibid.), however, gives no clue to the date of the font he describes: "The font is octangular, of a mean design, and unworthy of the church; it occupies a pew in the south aisle." Murray (1859) noptes: "St. Dunstan's MS. book contains the following entry:-- '30th March, 1645. Ordered and agreed that a convenient place shall be made in the body of the Church, near the reading place, for a font, or baptizing place, according to the Directory, and alteration of other Churches in the City; and that the silver basin now used for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper shall be put into an iron hoop, and used for baptisms.'" Blatch (1995) notes: "The mediaeval church was one of the wealthiest in the City [...] In the Regency period [...] the rest of the church was rebuilt by the architect David Laing between 1817 and 1821 in Georgian Perpendicular style, an early example of Gothic Revival [...] St Dunstan's was gutted in the 1939-45 War and has been left as a ruin to show what the City suffered". [NB: we have no information on the font from the original church of ca. 1100].