St Botolph by Billingsgate

• St Botolph by Billingsgate as a parish dates back to mediaeval times and Botolph’s Gate is mentioned at the time of William the Conqueror. When the site of the church was excavated during the creation of the Billingsgate Lorry Park, it yielded several valuable finds. Pevsner found part of the churchyard during his perambulations in the mid-1960s.

• St Botolph Billingsgate was one of 86 parish churches destroyed in the Great Fire in 1666. In 1670 a Rebuilding Act was passed and a committee set up under the stewardship of Sir Christopher Wren to decide which would be rebuilt. Fifty-one were chosen, but St Botolph was perhaps the unluckiest not to be rebuilt.

• The original plan was to rebuild the church but part of the site was required for the passage leading to Botolph's Wharf and part for the widening of Thames Street so it was sacrificed and united to St George Botolph Lane, both these parishes are now united to St Mary at Hill. Thomas Morley was buried in the churchyard.

The photograph shows all that is left - the entrance to the churchyard