St. Martin’s House, on the north side, is a modern red sandstone building.
St. Anne’s Churchyard, with one or two plane-trees of good size, makes a break in the line of modern houses beyond.
SS. ANNE AND AGNES, ALDERSGATE
This church stands on the north side of Gresham Street, towards the west end. The date of the foundation of the original church is uncertain, but mention is made of it in a deed dating between 1193-1212, in St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was damaged by fire in 1548, reconstructed and again destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666. The present building was completed by Wren in 1681. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1322.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of:
The Dean and Canons of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, 1322; the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, 1510; the Bishop of Westminster by grant of Henry VIII., January 11, 1540-41; the Bishop of London and his successors by grant of Edward VI., July 4, 1550; confirmed by Queen Mary, March 3, 1553-54.
Houseling people in 1548 were 300.
The present building is of brick, and measures 53 feet square, and 35 feet in height. Within this area four Corinthian columns form another square. The tower, rising at the west, measures 14 feet at the base and culminates in a vane; the total height is 95 feet.
A chantry was founded here by Thomas Juvenal and Alice his wife at the Altar of St. Nicholas; to which Richard Grant was instituted chaplain, April 10, 1363.
The church formerly contained monuments to Stephen Brackynbury, gentleman, Usher to Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth. William Gregory, Mayor of London, 1461, was buried here, but no monument remained in 1598.