ST. GEORGE’S CHURCH
St. George’s Church was burnt down in the Great Fire, rebuilt by Wren in 1674, and became the parish church for St. Botolph’s, Billingsgate, which had been also destroyed but not re-erected. In 1895 the building was closed on account of its dilapidated state. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1321. [Since pulled down.]
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and Convent of St. Saviour, Bermondsey, in 1321; then the Crown, since 1541 up to 1666, when it was annexed to St. Botolph, Billingsgate, and with it to St. Mary-at-Hill.
Houseling people in 1548 were 123.
The present church measures 54 feet in length, 36 feet in breadth, and 36 feet in height. It has two side-aisles, each separated from the nave by two composite columns, placed far apart. The tower, which rises at the north-west, consists of three stories, concluded by a cornice and parapet, the angles of which are adorned with vases. The total height is about 84 feet.
Stow records a chantry founded by Roger Delakere.
The monuments of the original church were well preserved, Stow says. Those commemorated, however, were of comparatively little eminence; amongst them were William Combes, donor of £40; James Mountford, another benefactor to the church, who died 1544. Among the more recent ones was one in memory of George Clint, parish clerk for thirty years, who died in 1605.
Monument Street was only opened about ten years ago, and cost half a million of money; this was spent partly in compensation to the dispossessed leaseholders. It was designed to afford a wide and direct route to the City for the fish brought from Billingsgate. A row of new red brick buildings lines part of the way on the right; at the corner of St. Mary-at-Hill is a post-office. Beyond these buildings is the ancient graveyard of St. Botolph, Billingsgate, which church was burnt in the Great Fire and not rebuilt. The graveyard is now used as a public recreation ground, and is fronted by a neat wall with a parapet, and on either side of the gate is a high brick pier with a lamp on the summit. On the south side of Monument Street fragments of waste ground remain still unbuilt on, and form receptacles for decayed fish and garbage.
For the Coal Exchange see p. [270].