St Matthew Friday Street

St Matthew Friday Street stood on Friday Street, off Cheapside in the City of London. Recorded since the 13th century, it was rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666 by Sir Christopher Wren’s office. The church was demolished in 1885 when its parish merged with St Peter, Westcheap. Cheapside was the main market street of medieval London, with streets named after goods sold there. Friday Street may have been named for fishmongers trading there rather than living there. The church was the only one in the City dedicated to St Matthew, patron saint of accountants. In 1631, Hugh Myddleton, who engineered the New River, was buried there as a parishioner and churchwarden. The rector Henry Burton criticised Archbishop Laud’s changes, leading to his punishment in the pillory and loss of his ears. After the 1662 Act of Uniformity, minister Henry Hurst was ejected, and Samuel Pepys recorded disturbances in the church. The rebuilt Wren church was small, plain and cheap, with an irregular shape and a single bell in its tower. The site was later covered by New Change Buildings in the 1950s. A Roman tiled pavement found beneath the church is now displayed at nearby St Vedast-alias-Foster. The communion table and Royal Arms were moved to St Vedast, while the font and pulpit went to St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe. The reredos from the church was installed at Polesden Lacey in Surrey. Though the church no longer stands, its history remains tied to the streets and surviving buildings of the City.