St Gabriel Fenchurch

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• St Gabriel Fenchurch (or Fen Church as recorded on the Ordnance Survey) was a parish church in the Langbourn Ward of the City, destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt.

• The church stood between Rood Lane and Mincing Lane. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, John Stow wrote in his description of Fenchurch Street: "In the midst of this street standeth a small parish church called St Gabriel Fen Church, corruptly Fan church".

• It was dedicated to St Mary until 1517, when it became All Saints, and finally St Gabriel’s. The church was lengthened by nine feet in 1631. Thomas Clark, a glazier, gave the church an east window, with the Royal Arms and the motto “Touch Not Mine Anointed”.

• St Gabriel's was, with most of the other parish churches in the City, destroyed in the great Fire of 1666. By 1670 a Rebuilding Act had been 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 Gabriel's was not among them. Instead the parish was united to that of St Margaret Pattens although its land holding was not finally resolved until 13 years later and charitable bequests continued to be made using the old name. The land on which the church had stood was incorporated into the roadway, but part of the churchyard survived in Fen Court.

• Notable tombs in the church included that of Spinola, the Elizabethan banker.


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