St Benet Gracechurch

St. Benet Gracechurch
Current Photo of site
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Roman Catholic, Anglican

St. Benet Gracechurch (or Grass Church), so called because a haymarket existed nearby (Cobb), was a church in the City of London first recorded in 1181.(Hibbert) Destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666, it was one of the 51 churches rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. The church was demolished in 1868.

The church was in Langbourne Ward.

Contents 1 History 2 The building 3 References 4 See also

History

‘St. Benet’ is short for ‘St. Benedict’ and this was one of 4 churches in pre-Fire London dedicated to St. Benedict of Nursia, the 6th century founder of Western monasticism. Several streets in medieval London were named after the produce sold there, such as Milk Street and Bread Street. Gracechurch meant “Grass Church”, referring to the site of a hay market.

The earliest surviving reference to the church is in the 1053 Charter of Brihtmaer conveying a church in Gracechurch Street to Christ Church, Canterbury. The dedication to St. Benedict is first recorded during the reign of Henry III.

At the beginning of the reign of Mary I, the churchwardens paid 3s. 4d. to a plasterer to remove the Biblical texts painted on the interior walls during the time of her Protestant brother Edward VI. Shortly afterwards, church records recount that a Te Deum was sung ‘ for the birth of our Prince – which was thought then to be’ – one of Mary’s phantom pregnancies.

The parish records include a Grace Church, a foundling left to be cared for by the parish.

According to John Strype, the St. Benet was repaired and beautified in 1630 and 1633. All was destroyed in the Great Fire. The parish was combined with that of St. Leonard Eastcheap in 1670 and rebuilding of the church began in 1681. The 1686 accounts include an entry of £1 14s 0d ‘to wine and sweetmeats for treating the Lord Mayor at the opening of the Church’, although work on the spire continued into the following year. The total cost of the church was £4583.

In 1791, Dr. George Gaskin, the secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, became rector at St. Benet's. His society work entailed co-ordinating the distribution of bibles and other religious works throughout the British Isles. In 1797, he took up the position of rector of the church of Stoke Newington, while maintaining the benefice of St. Benet.

The second half of the 19th century saw a movement of population from the City of London to surrounding suburbs. This left many of the city churches with tiny congregations, while many of the newly built suburbs had no churches. The Union of Benefices Act 1860 was passed by Parliament, permitting the demolition of City churches and the sale of land to build churches in the suburbs. St. Benet Gracechurch was demolished in 1868 so that Gracechurch Street could be widened. The land was sold for £24,000 and the proceeds used to build St. Benet Mile End Road. The parish was combined with that of nearby All Hallows Lombard Street and the furnishings distributed among several churches. The internments were reburied in the City of London Cemetery, at Manor Park. The outstanding pulpit is now in St Olave Hart Street.

The site, at the intersection of Gracechurch and Fenchurch Streets, is now occupied by a 1997 seven story office block.

The building

St. Benet Gracechurch was built in the shape of a rectangle with five round headed windows on the main, north front, above which were five round windows. There was a balustrade on the roof of the church.

The tower, in the north west corner, was square. Above the belfry window was a broken pediment, containing a small window. The tower was surmounted by a lead covered dome, decorated with cartouches. On top of the dome was a square entablature, comprising four arches with pediments. From the entablature emerged a tall spire, with a flag finial at the top, making the whole 149 feet high.

The interior was 60 feet long and 30 feet wide: “much smaller than would be expected from the external appearance”, according to George Godwin. It was a single space, undivided by columns, with a vaulted ceiling . There was a small gallery at the west end ^[1] The east wall above the reredos was painted to look like a crimson and gold curtain.

St. Benet Gracechurch was one of only two Wren churches never to have an organ.

References

• Jeffery, Paul. The city churches of Sir Christopher Wren, Hambledon Press, 1996
• Ellen,R.G. A London steeplechase, City Press, 1972
• Cobb,Gerald. London city churches, B T Batsford Ltd., 1977
• Hibbert,C./Keay,J./Weinreb,D. The London Encyclopaedia Pan Macmillan, 2008

See also

• List of Christopher Wren churches in London
• List of churches rebuilt after the Great Fire but since demolished

Churches in the City of London All Hallows Bread Street All Hallows-by-the-Tower All Hallows Honey Lane All Hallows Lombard Street All Hallows-on-the-Wall All-Hallows-the-Less All-Hallows-the-Great All Hallows, Staining Christ Church, Greyfriars College of Minor Canons Dutch Church, Austin Friars Holy Trinity Gough Square Holy Trinity the Less Hospital of St Thomas of Acre Old St Paul's Cathedral St Alban, Wood Street St Alphage London Wall St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe St Andrew, Holborn St Andrew Hubbard St Andrew Undershaft St Ann Blackfriars St Anne and St Agnes St Antholin, Budge Row St Audoen within Newgate St Augustine Papey St Augustine, Watling Street St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange St Bartholomew-the-Great St Bartholomew-the-Less St Benet Fink St Benet Gracechurch St Benet, Paul's Wharf St Benet Sherehog St Botolph, Aldersgate St Botolph, Aldgate St Botolph Billingsgate St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate St Bride, Fleet Street St Christopher le Stocks St Clement, Eastcheap St Dionis Backchurch St Dunstan-in-the-East St Dunstan-in-the-West St Edmund, King and Martyr St Ethelburga, Bishopsgate St Faith under St Paul's St Gabriel Fenchurch St George Botolph Lane St Giles, Cripplegate St Gregory by St Paul's St Helen, Bishopsgate St James Duke's Place St James, Garlickhythe St John the Evangelist Friday Street St John the Baptist upon Walbrook St John Zachary St Katharine Cree St Katherine Coleman St Laurence Pountney St Lawrence Jewry St Leonard, Eastcheap St Leonard, Foster Lane St Magnus the Martyr St Margaret Lothbury St Margaret Moses St Margaret, New Fish Street St Margaret Pattens St Martin, Ludgate St Martin Orgar St Martin Pomary St Martin Vintry St Martin Outwich St Mary Abchurch St Mary Aldermanbury St Mary Aldermary St Mary-at-Hill St Mary Axe, London St Mary Bothaw St Mary Colechurch St Mary-le-Bow St. Mary Magdalen Milk Street St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street St Mary Mounthaw St Mary Moorfields St Mary Somerset St Mary Staining St Mary Woolchurch Haw St Mary Woolnoth St Matthew Friday Street St Michael Bassishaw St Michael, Cornhill St Michael, Crooked Lane St Michael-le-Querne St Michael, Paternoster Royal St Michael Queenhithe St Michael Wood Street St Mildred, Bread Street St Mildred, Poultry St Nicholas Acons St Nicholas Olave St Nicholas Shambles St Nicholas, Cole Abbey St Olave, Hart Street St Olave, Old Jewry St Olave, Silver Street St Paul's Cathedral St Peter le Poer St Peter, Paul's Wharf St Peter, Westcheap St Peter upon Cornhill St Sepulchre-without-Newgate St Stephen Coleman Street St Stephen Walbrook St Swithin, London Stone St Thomas the Apostle St Vedast alias Foster Temple Church