ST. ETHELBURGA THE VIRGIN
This church is dedicated to Ethelburga, who was sister of Erconwald, fourth Bishop of London, and first Abbess of Barking. In all probability the parish was formed and the church was built in the century which succeeded the Conquest. It escaped the Great Fire, and has subsequently had a great deal of attempted restoration. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1304.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: the Prioress and Convent of St. Helen’s, London, 1366; then Henry VIII. seized it and it was granted in 1569 to the Bishop of London, and continues with his successors.
Houseling people in 1548 were 140.
The present church, originally Early English, appears to have been altered at the close of the fourteenth century or early fifteenth. It is very small, measuring less than 60 feet by 30, and under 31 feet in height, and is almost crowded out by houses. Entrance is obtained through an archway between two shops, the upper stories of which conceal everything but the top of the west window and turret. It contains a south aisle separated from the rest by four pointed arches, with a clerestory above. The roof is divided into compartments and slopes slightly at the sides. The arch at the entrance of the nave is fine and there are remnants of wood-carving, probably of the sixteenth century, on the porch.
A chantry was founded here at the Altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Gilbert Marion, and Christina his wife, to which Thomas More was admitted chaplain, December 15, 1436.
There are tablets affixed to the wall commemorating parishioners, but little interest attaches to the individuals. The only two connected with this church of any eminence are John Larke, a friend of Sir Thomas More, who was executed in 1554 for denying the King’s supremacy; and Luke Milbourne (1649-1720), Dryden’s hostile critic, rector here in 1704. William Bray (d. 1644), chaplain to Archbishop Laud, was also sometime rector.
In Clark’s Place is a building containing the Marine Society, with the statues of a woman and boy in a niche. In Bishopsgate Street, No. 68, is an old stuccoed house with projecting upper stories. No. 67 is also old though not so noticeable.
Part of Ethelburga House and the numbers on the north, as far as 23 inclusive, are in this ward. The corner house has a stone mitre of large size on its corner and an inscription, rather quaintly worded, announcing that the gate stood formerly “adjoining to this spot.” Looking back down Bishopsgate from here we get a fine perspective view. The modern buildings are of all heights, but distance blends them not inharmoniously, leaving enough variety to be pleasing.
Drawn by R. West, 1736.
ST. ETHELBURGA, BISHOPSGATE ST.
The Mail Coach public-house is at the corner, and on the opposite house is a small mitre in memory of the Bishopsgate.
Just outside the City Wall is