St Bride Fleet Street, London Genealogy

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St Bride's [or sometimes called St Bridget's], Fleet Street, the church of, situated to the southward of the above described Avenue, and is bounded by the Avenue on the north; St Bride's Passage, Salisbury Square, on the west; Bride Lane on the east, and the backs of the houses of Bell's Buildings on the south. This church is a fabric of great strength and beauty, and forms one of the most striking features of the metropolis. Its interior is spacious, commodious and elegant, being 111 feet in length, 57 in breadth, and 41 in height; is remarkably well pewed, with moulded wainscot, and is composed of a lofty nave, covered with a vaulted ceiling, and aisles separated by coupled columns of the Doric order. The old church was so much damaged by the fire 1666, that it was taken down and entirely rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren, who completed it for divine services in 1680, and further embellished it in 1699. The tower and steeple were begun in October 1701, and completed in 1703. The church has since that time undergone several expensive repairs, and has been recently restored and beautified in a manner deserving its great reputation, and creditable to the munificence of the parishioners. This church appears to be of considerable antiquity, as there are records of three rectors previous to 1362. It was a very small building, till about 1480, when it was greatly enlarged by William Venor, who erected a spacious fabric at its west end, which consisted of a native and to aisles, to which the ancient church served as a choir. In 1610, the Earl of Dorset gave a large piece of ground on the west side of Fleet Ditch, for a new burial ground, and it was consecrated the second of August of that year by Dr. George Abbott, Bishop of London. The cemetery, which is behind the Westside of Farringdon Street, is still used for that purpose. It was originally a rectory in the patronage of the Abbott and and convent of Westminster and is supposed to have been converted into a vicarage about the year 1529. When Henry VIII dissolved the convent of Westminster and formed into a bishoprick this church was conferred upon the new Bishop, and restored to the Abbott by his daughter Mary, but on the restoration of the deanery plate Edward IV, the patronage was granted to the Dean and Chapter...

[Adapted from: Topographical Dictionary of London by James Elmes; published 1831]