St Christopher le Stocks

St Christopher le Stocks
Current photo of site
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Roman Catholic, Anglican

St Christopher le Stocks was an parish church^[1], situated on the south side of Threadneedle Street in Broad Street Wardof the City of London.

1 History
2 Re-interment of human remains
3 The extant parish clerks
4 Bibliography
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

History

The earliest reference to the church is in 1282 (Deacon, 1982). The origin of the name is disputed: Freshfield (1876) maintains it refers to the City Stocks, which at one time stood close to the church, but Huelin (1996) believes it to be a reference to the nearby Stock Exchange. Endowments were bequeathed in 1427 and 1506^[2]. The church was burnt in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren in 1671 using much of the surviving material, it was the first of his churches to be completed (Amery, 1988) at a cost of £2,098 12s 7d (Reynolds, 1922).

The church was demolished in 1782 (Hibbert,2008) to provide space for the extension of the Bank of England^[3] and the parish united with that of St Margaret Lothbury in 1781 (Hallows, 1954). This was done to prevent an attack at night from St Christopher’s roof (Griffiths,1997).

The churchyard was also requisitioned in 1798, and now lies underneath the Bank’s Garden Court^[4]. Partial burial records remain and are available for family history research^[5].

A parish boundary mark (marking the boundary with that of St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange) can be seen on the front wall of the Bank of England. A similar mark is visible on the Princes Street elevation of the Bank of England, but, in this instance, marking the boundary with St Margaret Lothbury.

The upper panels of the pulpit dating from Wren’s 1671 rebuilding survive at St. Nicholas Church Canewdon in Essex and are a fine specimen of carving of the Grinling Gibbons style.

Re-interment of human remains

The remains of those interred in the church and churchyard of St Christopher's were removed during development of the Bank of England in 1867 to Nunhead Cemetery in South East London. When the Bank underwent wholesale redevelopment in the 1930s, further relocations of interred remains were made to Nunhead in 1933.

The extant parish clerks

Following the World War II German air raids on London (the so-called "blitz"), the ecclesiastical parish of St Christopher le Stocks became part of the united benefice of St Margaret, Lothbury and St. Stephen Coleman Street. In common with all City of London parishes, St Christopher le Stocks has a serving parish clerk. St Christopher's clerk, is appointed by the rector and parochial church council of St Margaret, Lothbury. There are eight parish clerks serving at St Margaret, Lothbury, reflecting the eight united parishes.

Bibliography

Amery,C “Wren’s London”: Luton, Lennard, 1988 ISBN 1852910097
Deacon, J, “The Story of St Christopher-le-Stocks”, in The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, 52 76-78:London, Bank of England,1982 ISSN 0962-5970 2C(272819)
Freshfield,E “Published parochial records of St Margaret Lothbury with St Christopher-le-Stocks and Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange”: London, Rixon & Arnold, 1876
Griffiths,P “Secrecy and authority in late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century London,” The Historical Journal, 40: 925-951: Cambridge University Press, 1997 ISSN 0018-246X 3E(007528)
Hallows,A.(Ed) “City of London Parish Registers Guide 4” - M0023878CL( Papers relating to the unification of the Church of England Parishes of St. Margaret Lothbury and St Christopher Le Stocks,1782): London, Guildhall Library Research, 1974 ISBN 0900422300
Hibbert,C;Weinreb,D;Keay,J:"The London Encyclopaedia" London, Pan Macmillan, 1983 (rev 1993,2008) ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5
Huelin, G “Vanished churches of the City of London”: London, Guildhall Library Publishing 1996ISBN 0900422424
Reynolds, H “Churches of the City of London”: London, Bodley Head, 1922
Woollacott. R., "The Victorian Catacombs at Nunhead": London, Friends of Nunhead Cemetery 2006 ISBN 0-9539194-6-3

References

External links

Churches in the City of London