Historic London Churches
St Giles Cripplegate - St Paul's Covent Garden
An A-Z of historic or architecturally significant churches to visit in London. Note that most are relatively modern. This is due to the horrible destruction of the Great Fire in 1666, which burned some 100 churches in London. So most of the churches you can see today date from the late 17th or early 18th century.
St Giles Cripplegate is one of the very few medieval churches left in London. The first church on this site was built in 1090. Poet John Milton is buried in St Giles.
Fore Street,
London,
Greater London,
England, EC2Y 8DA
Heritage Rating:
Nearest: Self Catering
St Lawrence Jewry is the official church of the City of London and stands opposite the London Guildhall. The original church dates to the 12th century but was destroyed in the Great Fire in 1666. It was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren, but that church, in turn, was damaged in the Blitz and rebuilt to Wren's original plans.
Guildhall Yard,
London,
Greater London,
England, EC2V 5AA
Heritage Rating:
Heritage Highlight: Sir Christopher Wren's most expensive London church
Nearest: Self Catering
St Luke, Oseney Crescent is a Victorian Gothic church designed by architect Basil Champneys for his father, the parish vicar. The most striking feature is the tower, which stands 40 metres high and is capped with an unusual gable roof. The building is of red brick brought from Suffolk, and the design draws inspiration from 13th-century Gothic.
Oseney Crescent, Kentish Town London,
Greater London,
England, NW5 2AT
Heritage Rating:
Heritage Highlight: Arts and Crafts design
Nearest: Self Catering
St Magnus the Martyr was built by Sir Christopher Wren to replace a 12th-century church that stood at the north end of London Bridge. The pedestrian roadway later passed directly through the base of the church tower. Highlights include the memorial of Miles Coverdale, Bishop of Exeter.
Lower Thames Street,
London,
Greater London,
England, EC3R 6DN
Heritage Rating:
Heritage Highlight: For 600 years the church stood on the main route into london
Nearest: Self Catering
St Martin-in-the-Fields is a beautiful 18th-century Baroque church famous for the classical orchestra of the same name (The Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields). There are very popular lunchtime concerts throughout the week.
Trafalgar Square,
London,
Greater London,
England, WC2N 4JJ
Heritage Rating:
Nearest: Self Catering
A true Cockney must be born within the sound of the bells of St Mary-le-Bow. The Norman crypt is the oldest parochial building in London still in use, but the rest of the church was built by Christopher Wren after the Great Fire.
54 Bow Lane,
London,
Greater London,
England, EC4M 9DJ
Heritage Rating:
Heritage Highlight: The Norman crypt
Nearest: Self Catering
A 13th-century church on the site of an earlier 11th-century building in the heart of London. St Olave is the burial place of Samuel Pepys and is one of the few London churches to survive the Great Fire in 1666, possibly because Pepys himself ordered nearby wooden buildings pulled down. Memorialised by Charles Dickens as 'St Ghastly Grim'.
8 Hart Street,
London,
Greater London,
England, EC3R 7NB
Heritage Rating:
Heritage Highlight: Burial place of Samuel Pepys
Nearest: Self Catering
St Pancras Old Church may be one of the most ancient places of Christian worship in Britain, with origins going back to the 4th century AD. The church we see today is Victorian but incorporates 12th-century walls and Roman bricks. The surrounding graveyard is home to the Hardy Tree, linked to writer Thomas Hardy.
Pancras Road,
London,
Greater London,
England, NW1 1UL
Heritage Rating:
Heritage Highlight: Roman bricks built into the north wall
Nearest: Self Catering
There was a church here as early as 604 AD. The first Norman cathedral was begun in the 11th century, and it took two centuries to finish. That huge building fell into disrepair and became a market place and pedestrian thoroughfare. In the 17th century Inigo Jones was commissioned to rebuild it, but the Civil War put a halt to that. Charles II asked the young Christopher Wren to draw up plans for remodelling, but before any work was done, the entire structure was burned to the ground in the Great Fire of 1665.
The Chapter House, St Paul's Churchyard London,
Greater London,
England, EC4M 8AD
Heritage Rating:
Nearest: Self Catering
On the west side of Covent Garden market stands the 17th-century church of St Paul's, designed by Inigo Jones for the 6th Earl of Bedford in 1630. St Paul's is known as The Actor's Church and the interior is lined with memorial plaques to generations of actors and actresses who worshipped here.
Bedford Street,
London,
Greater London,
England, WC2E 9ED
Heritage Rating:
Heritage Highlight: Neoclassical design by Inigo Jones
Nearest: Self Catering