St Dunstan's, Stepney

St Dunstan’s stands on Stepney High Street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Founded or re-founded in AD 952 by Dunstan, Bishop of London, the church replaced an earlier wooden building. It later became known as the Mother Church of the East End and the Church of the High Seas. Dunstan, patron saint of bell ringers and metalworkers, is closely linked to the site. The present building, mainly from the fifteenth century, replaced two earlier structures on the same spot. The church’s history reflects its importance to seafaring life in the East End. For centuries it recorded births at sea, giving rise to the old rhyme about sailors being parishioners of Stepney. The ten bells in the tower include some cast in 1806 at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the last survivor of London’s metalworking heritage. Two bells bear dedications to local charities supporting sailors’ widows and apprentices. Inside, a triple sedilia and a late Anglo-Saxon rood survive from earlier periods. The organ, rebuilt in 1971, replaced instruments lost in a 1901 fire. The churchyard, nearly seven acres, was enlarged during the Great Plague when 6,583 died in eighteen months. A public garden now occupies part of the grounds, planted with London planes and a black mulberry tree.