ST. ALPHAGE
At the north end of Aldermanbury at the corner of London Wall, is the Church of St. Alphage. This parish church originally stood on the other side, against the Wall. It is dedicated to St. Alphage, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was canonised in 1012. Its old churchyard may still be seen. It is built on part of the site of the hospital and priory founded by William Elsing in 1329 and 1332. The priory harboured one hundred poor blind men, and suffered suppression along with the rest at the Dissolution. Under Henry VIII. a remnant of the priory church became parochial and was extensively repaired and rebuilt in 1624, 1628, and 1649. It escaped the Great Fire, but was taken down in 1774 and the present building erected by Sir William Staines and opened in 1777. Part of the original structure may still be seen in the porch. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1137.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Deans and Canons of St. Martin’s-le-Grand before 1324, from whom it passed to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster from 1505; the Bishop of Westminster by grant of Henry VIII., January 20, 1540; the Bishop of London by gift of Edward VI. in 1550, confirmed by Mary, March 3, 1553-54, in whose successors it continued.
Houseling people in 1548 were 345.
The present church possesses two fronts, an eastern and north-western; the north-west door leads into a porch, the pointed arches of which show it to have once formed part of the old priory church. This is the only relic of past times. The interior is plain, the ceiling flat, and there are no aisles.
A chantry was founded here by John Graunte, whose endowment yielded £15 : 10 : 8 in 1548.
The church contains a handsome monument on the north wall to Sir Rowland Hayward, Lord Mayor in 1570 and 1591; it was placed on the south side of the old church. On the same wall, farther east, a marble monument commemorates Samuel Wright, who at his death in 1736 left charitable bequests to the extent of £20,950.
PORCH OF ST. ALPHAGE, LONDON WALL, 1818.
Some of the donors of gifts were Sir Rowland Hayward, 20d. for bread every Sabbath day for the poor, 1591, and John Brown, £30 for church repairs, 1629.
There was a school for fifty boys and twenty-five girls, who were clothed and educated and put out to trades and service at the charge of the ward. There were also ten almshouses for ten men and ten women, each of whom was allowed £4 per annum, founded by the Rev. Dr. Thomas White. Part of the almshouses in Monkwell Street belonged to this parish.
A notable rector of this church was Philip Stubbs (1665-1738), Archdeacon of St. Alban’s.
Just opposite to Philip Street is still preserved the old churchyard of St. Alphage, a rectangular railed-in space with ivy growing over the old wall that forms the backbone. On a slab near the centre is the inscription:
The burial ground of St. Alphage containing part of the old Roman City wall. Closed by Act of Parliament 1853. Laid out as a garden 1872.
To the west of the churchyard once stood Sion College. This was built in 1623 with almshouses attached, according to the will of Dr. Thomas White, vicar of St. Dunstan’s-in-the-West. It stood on the site of Elsing Spital (see Mediæval London, vol. ii. p. 248).
SION COLLEGE, LONDON WALL, 1800
From an original drawing in the possession of the President and Fellows of Sion College.
Sion College had a fine library left by the will of Dr. John Simson, rector of St. Olave, Hart Street, and a third of these books was burnt in the Great Fire, which almost destroyed the College. Up to 1836 the College enjoyed the privilege of receiving a gratuitous copy of every published book. The City clergy were Fellows of the College. In 1886 a new building on the Embankment was opened to take the place of the old one, and now the ancient site is covered by business houses.