St Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street

St Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street stood in the City of London near the Thames, on the corner of Old Fish Street and Old Change. The church first appears in records from the 12th century and was rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666 under Sir Christopher Wren. Its tower reached 86 feet and carried a stone spire inspired by the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The building had a rectangular plan with Portland stone facades and a balustraded roof. Inside, four large round-headed windows lit the south side and three lit the east. The church held notable memorials, including a 1586 brass plaque for merchant Thomas Berrie. John Evelyn noted receiving Holy Communion there in 1653 during the Protectorate. The organ, installed in 1786 by Samuel Green, was rebuilt in 1857 by Gray and Davison. The Reverend Richard Harris Barham, author of The Ingoldsby Legends, served as rector from 1824 to 1842. A fire in 1886 damaged the roof, and the church was demolished in 1893 under the Union of Benefices Act. Today the site lies beneath Old Change Square, a post-war development. Some furnishings were moved to St Martin, Ludgate, where the bread shelves and Berrie’s plaque survive. The parish clerkship remains, now linked to St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe. John Betjeman’s poem describes Wren’s design as ‘a box with a fanciful plaster ceiling’.