George Yard contains the imposing building of the Deutsche Bank in London, as well as a couple of large houses let in flats, and presents a decidedly dignified appearance. The Bank is an immense building, with a granite-columned portico, and rusticated stonework round it.
Of the two churches now remaining in this street, one is
ST. EDMUND, KING AND MARTYR
This church was anciently called by some St. Edmund Grass-Church, because of its proximity to the grass market. It was burnt down in the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren in 1690. In 1864 and 1880 the church was restored. After the Great Fire, the parish of St. Nicholas Acon was annexed. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1150.
The patronage was in the hands of the Prior and Convent of Holy Trinity, London, but Henry VIII. seized it and granted it to the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1545, in whose successors it continues.
Houseling people in 1548 were 240.
The present church measures 59 feet in length, 40 feet in breadth, and 57 feet 9 inches in height. It is singular from its standing north and south, but this was forced upon Wren by the position of the ground at his disposal. There are no aisles. The steeple, which rises at the south, consists of a three-storied tower and octagonal lantern and spire, and a pedestal supporting a finial and vane. The lantern is ornamented at the angles by flaming urns, in allusion to the Great Fire. A projecting clock is attached to the face of the second story and is a prominent feature in Lombard Street. The total height is 136 feet.
Chantries were founded here: By Thomas Wyllys for himself and Christian his wife, whose endowment fetched £24 in 1548, when Richard Auncell was chaplain; by and for Matilda at Vane, relict of John Atte Rose, dedicated to SS. John, Peter, and Thomas the martyr, to which John Reynes was admitted chaplain on the resignation of William Belgrave, September 25, 1382; by Richard Toky for himself and Matilda his wife, to which William Howes de Blackolm was admitted chaplain, October 20, 1362; by John Longe, whose endowment fetched £35 in 1548, when William Myller and Edward Mamyn or Hamonde were chaplains.
The old church contained a monument to John Shute, a painter-stainer, who wrote one of the earliest English works on Architecture. He died in 1563. On the east wall a monument commemorates Dr. Jeremiah Milles, Dean of Exeter, President of the Society of Antiquaries, and rector of the united parishes, who died in 1784.
Addison was married in this church to the Dowager Countess of Warwick and Holland in 1716.