St Mary Aldermary

• Ashlar-faced outside and Gothic throughout, St Mary Aldermary is in Bow Lane in the City. The church was badly damaged in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren.

• There has been a church on this site for over 900 years and its name is usually taken to mean that it is the oldest of the City churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The early benefactors of the Church were believed to be the Benedictine Monks of Christ Church Canterbury, so it is likely that the Church was founded and sponsored by Benedictine Monastics. However, little evidence for this survives and what evidence there might have been was probably destroyed in the Great Fire.

• In 1510, Sir Henry Keeble financed the building of a new church. The tower was unfinished when he died in 1518. In 1629, two legacies enabled it to be completed. The church was said to have been among the largest and finest of the City's churches. The parish registers date from 1558.

• St Mary Aldermary was greatly damaged in the Great Fire of 1666 although parts of its walls and tower survived. It was mostly rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren in a Gothic style. The church opened in 1682.

• The church was damaged by German bombs in the London Blitz during the Second World War.‎ All the windows were shattered and some plaster fell from the vaulting but the building itself remained intact.

• The church has been repaired and restored many times over the years. The latest interior restoration was finished in April 2005, with special attention paid to the plaster ceilings and the memorials on the north wall.

• It is the regimental church of the Royal Tank Regiment.

• The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.