St. Peter’s Cheap, a church, which stood at the corner of Wood street Cheapside, in Faringdon ward within, but being destroyed by the fire of London in 1666, the parish was united to St. Matthew, Friday street.
St. Peter’s Cornhill, a plain neat church, near the south east corner of Cornhill, in the ward of that name. There has been many ages a church in the same place, under the patronage of the same apostle: but the last edifice was destroyed by the fire of London, and this substantial structure rose in its place. The body is eighty feet long, and forty-seven broad; it is forty feet high to the roof, and the height of the steeple is an hundred and forty feet. The body is plain, and enlightened by a single series of windows. The tower, which is also plain, has a small window in each stage, and the dome which supports the spire is of the lantern kind; this spire, which is well proportioned, is crowned by a ball, whence rises the fane, in the form of a key.
The patronage of this rectory is in the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of this city. The Rector receives, besides other profits, 120l. a year by glebe, and 110l. a year in lieu of tithes.
St. Peter le Poor, on the west side of Broad street, in the ward of that name, is supposed by Maitland, to have received its additional epithet le Poor, from the mean condition of the parish in ancient times: tho’ it is now extremely wealthy, it being inhabited by a great number of merchants, and other persons of distinction.
Others imagine that it was called le Poor, from the neighbouring friary of St. Austin, where reigned an affected poverty. A church stood upon the same spot before the year 1181, and the present edifice which escaped the fire in 1666, is supposed to have been built about the year 1540.
This Gothic structure, instead of being an ornament to the street in which it is placed, as all public buildings ought to be, is a very great deformity; the building itself is mean, one of its corners being thrust as it were into the street, renders it narrow, obstructs the passage, and destroys the vista. This structure is of very considerable breadth in proportion to its length; it being fifty-four feet long, and fifty-one broad: the height to the roof is twenty-three feet, and that of the tower and turret seventy-five. The body is plain and unornamented; the windows are very large; and the dial is fixed to a beam that is joined on one end to a kind of turret, and extends like a country sign post, across the street; a very rude and aukward contrivance. The tower, which rises square, without diminution, is strengthened at the corners with rustic; upon this is placed a turret, which consists of strong piers at the corners arched over, and covered with an open dome, whence rises a ball and fane.
The advowson of this church appears to have been all along in the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s. The tithes at present amount to 130l. a year; and the other profits by annual donations settled upon the Rector, amount to about as much more.
Peter’s court, 1. Ironmonger row. 2. St. Martin’s lane, Charing cross. 3. Peter lane. 4. Rosemary lane.
Peter’s hill, 1. Knightrider street. 2. Saffron hill.
St. Peter’s hill, Thames street, so called from the following church.