My Top Ten Historic Churches In London

Churches are incredible receptacles of history. They have often spent centuries at the heart of the community and are therefore often packed with memorials and stories. They can also be wonderful places to escape the hectic pace of the city.

Below are my personal top ten historic churches in London, I have not included ruined churches or Cathedrals. Let me know if there are any you think should have been included in the comments! 

You can see a map of their locations here. 

1. St Bartholomew the Great

St Bartholomew the Great, London’s oldest parish church, always takes my breath away. It was established in 1123 and is largely of the Norman, romanesque style. Unsurprisingly it is has appeared in many films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Shakespeare in Love.

By the altar, you can see his tomb of the founder Rahere, a courtier of Henry I. You also will not fail to miss the sculpture Exquisite Pain by Damien Hirst, depicting St Bartholomew, one of the twelve Apostles, who was skinned alive.

You can read about all the details to find there here. 

2. Temple Church

Consecrated in 1185, Temple Church is also one of London’s oldest churches. It was the English headquarters of the Knights Templar, a crusading order of warrior monks, established in 1118 to protect pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land. 

The round nave was inspired by the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and Temple Church today is one of only four surviving round churches in the country. The chancel was added in 1240. 

You can see nine effigies of medieval knights inside the church including William Marshal (1146-1219), described after he died as the ‘best knight that ever lived’ after he had served five different monarchs. 

It has also been made famous in recent years as one of the locations in the Da Vinci Code.

Find out more about Temple Church here. 

3. All Hallows by the Tower

All Hallows by the Tower was established in 675AD by Erkenwald, Bishop of London. It has an arch, exposed in the Blitz, thought to be of Anglo-Saxon origin, made partly of recycled Roman tiles. The rest of the church is today is predominantly 15th century and post-World War Two. 

Go down into the crypt to find a veritable feast of historical treasures: an exposed section of Roman pavement, a model of Roman London, Saxon stonework, medieval artefacts and more. 

Find out more about what you can see there here. 

4. St Etheldreda’s, Holborn

Tucked away down Ely Place, St Etheldreda’s church in Holborn is a real hidden gem. Built in around 1290, it is one of only two surviving buildings in London from the reign of Edward I.

It is the oldest church in London with a Roman Catholic denomination, after it was bought by a Catholic convert, William Lockhart, in the 1870s. 

It was originally part of Ely Palace, the opulent London home of the once powerful Bishops of Ely. The Palace was eventually sold off and knocked down and Ely Place built on the site in the 18th century. Ye Olde Mitre around the corner (one of my top ten pubs!) originally catered to the palace servants.

Find out more about Ely Palace here.

5. St Stephen Walbrook

St Stephen Walbrook, finished in 1679, is one of Sir Christopher Wren’s post-Great Fire rebuilds, but there has been a church here since at least the 11th century. The Walbrook is one of London’s ‘lost rivers’ that once flowed past here.

Wren used this particular church as an opportunity to test out some of the techniques and theories he would then go on to use at St Paul’s. It is therefore one of his most spectacular, with an incredible dome.

Since the late 1980s it has had a centralised altar, designed by the sculptor Henry Moore. The Samaritans was started here by the rector Chad Varah, with one phone in the crypt, in November 1953. You can see the original Samaritan’s phone in the church today.

Find out more about St Stephen Walbrook here. 

6. St Bride’s, Fleet Street

Finished in 1675, St Bride’s is another of Sir Christopher Wren’s most impressive churches. The beautiful steeple is said to have inspired the design for the first tiered wedding cake in the early 1700s. The eyes of a baker casting around for inspiration for a cake, to impress his fiance, fell on the steeple and the tiered wedding cake was born.

In the crypt of the church you will find evidence of many different medieval churches going back to the 11th century, as well as a section of exposed Roman pavement.

There is also a museum all about Fleet Street and its history at the heart of the country’s print industry. The church’s association with the print media in fact goes back to when the first printing press with movable type was set up in the churchyard in 1500 by Wynken de Worde. 

Find out more about the incredible history of the church here. 

7. St Pancras Old Church

St Pancras Old Church, set amongst the beautiful St Pancras Gardens, almost looks like a little countryside church. It is said to be one of the oldest Christian sites of worship in Europe, with roots going back to the 4th century. The majority of the church today dates from a 19th century restoration, however there are said to be much older elements still incorporated in its fabric.

In the churchyard you will find a number of fascinating historical sights. Mary Wollstonecraft, the early feminist and mother of Mary Shelley is buried here as well as architect Sir John Soane. You will also see what remains of the Hardy Tree.

The Hardy Tree blew down in late 2022 but until then it stood amongst an eerie ring of stacked tombstones. It is said that a young Thomas Hardy, then an architect’s apprentice, was given the job of exhuming bodies here and moving gravestones for a new railway line. He stacked the gravestones artistically around an ash tree in the churchyard. 

Find out more and see what the Hardy Tree used to look like here.

8. St Magnus the Martyr 

St Magnus the Martyr church is today tucked slightly awkwardly between Lower Thames Street and the riverside. Finished in 1687 and designed by Sir Christopher Wren, it has roots going back to at least the 12th century. 

The old medieval London Bridge that crossed the river here from 1209-1831 ran straight past the entrance of St Magnus the Martyr. In the 1760s a new entranceway onto the bridge was cut into the porch of the church, meaning it almost became a gateway into London from the South.

The bridge was rebuilt 30 metres up river in 1831 and you can see surviving stones from the old bridge in the churchyard today. Inside the church is a fantastic model of the medieval London Bridge, complete with its houses overhanging the river, gatehouses, chapel and hordes of travellers crossing the river. 

Find out more about the church and the model here. 

9. The Savoy Chapel

The Savoy Chapel, or the King’s Chapel of the Savoy, can be found tucked just off the busy Strand. From the 13th century this was the site of the huge and lavish Savoy Palace. In the 14th century it passed into the hands of John of Gaunt, the uncle and Lord Protector for the young King Richard II. The Palace was destroyed in the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381. 

A hospital was built on the site on the orders of King Henry VII and it had three chapels, one of which is the chapel that we have today. The hospital was largely demolished in the early 1800s and just our chapel kept. It is a ‘Royal Peculiar’ because it is owned by the monarch, not the Church of England.

It is mostly a 19th century rebuild today after a couple of huge fires but has a wonderful ceiling, inspired by the original Tudor chapel. 

Find out more here. 

10. St Olave Hart Street

St Olave Hart Street is one of the few medieval churches in the City to have survived the Great Fire. It was protected by the Royal Navy who had their base nearby on Seething Lane. There has been a church on the site since at least the 11th century with the current structure dating from 1450. 

It has a simple country church feel inside and you can see memorials to both Samuel Pepys, the famous 17th century diarist, and his wife Elizabeth, both buried here. 

Over the entranceway to the churchyard you will see three ominous skulls added in 1658.

They led Charles Dickens to describe the church as ‘St Ghastly Grim’. Rather fittingly then, it is thought around 300 victims of the Great Plague of 1665 are buried in the churchyard.

Thank you for reading, more of London’s history below!