St Lawrence Jewry, London

St Lawrence Jewry stands beside the Guildhall on Gresham Street in the City of London. Built in the twelfth century and dedicated to St Lawrence, it was rebuilt after the Great Fire by Sir Christopher Wren between 1670 and 1677. The church’s alignment may follow the line of the London Roman Amphitheatre, rediscovered in 1988 beneath the Guildhall Art Gallery. It was the site where Sir Thomas More once preached and later became the official church of the Lord Mayor of London. The church houses the weathervane shaped like St Lawrence’s gridiron and a ring of eight bells cast in 1957. The church has witnessed centuries of history, from medieval repairs in 1618 to near-total destruction in the Blitz of 1940. After the war, the City of London Corporation restored it in 1957 to Wren’s original design under architect Cecil Brown. The poet Sir John Betjeman called it “very municipal, very splendid,” and it was granted Grade I listed status in 1950. Notable figures such as Archbishop John Tillotson and merchant Francis Levett are buried here, and the church hosted the wedding of Ann Levett in the seventeenth century. Today it serves as a guild church without a parish, hosting events like Waitangi Day for the New Zealand Society. Inside, Wren’s design features a single north aisle divided by Corinthian columns, a continuous entablature, and a ceiling of sunken panels adorned with wreaths and branches. The grand east front shows four attached Corinthian columns supporting a pediment above a high attic. The church is linked to Balliol College, Oxford, which once held the advowson, and today supports livery companies including the Girdlers and Distillers. Organists such as Catherine Ennis and James McVinnie have led lunchtime recitals since 1957, continuing a tradition of music in the heart of the City.