St. Anne & St. Agness church
The ancient St. Anne and St. Agnes is the only City church with a double dedication of saints. It was rebuilt following the Great Fire, and again after the Blitz.
St. Anne and St. Agnes can be seen just inside the city wall in Civitas Londinum (the ‘Agas map’) from about 1561.
During the medieval period this church was known as either St. Anne or St. Agnes. Since the 15th century it has had the double dedication, the only such one in the City. St. Anne was the grandmother of Jesus, and mother of Mary. St. Agnes is a more obscure saint who was martyred by the Romans in 304AD when only 13 years old. The church was first recorded in 1150. It was destroyed by fire in1548 and rebuilt, only to be destroyed in the following century in the Great Fire.
It was rebuilt under Wren between 1677 and 1687, although probably with much assistance from Robert Hooke. The plan is a Greek Cross in a square, with exterior walls of Dutch-style red brick. It incorporates the first two stages of the 14th century tower, which are stuccoed and thus appear to be a different building. The tower is topped by a weatherboarded bell turret, and weathervane in the shape of an A. Inside, the vaulted square roof is supported by four Corinthian columns, similar to St. Martin Ludgate and St. Mary-at-Hill. On the west wall is a good example of the coat of arms of Charles II.
It was renovated several times during the 19th century. Until the Second World War it was hemmed in by other buildings. It is now quite visible on the corner of Gresham Street and Noble Street behind its former churchyard, which has been converted into a small park.
St. Anne and St. Agnes was badly damaged in the Blitz. Restoration, by Braddock & Martin Smith for the Lutheran church to Wren’s designs, only took place in 1966 and was used until 2013 by their Estonian and Latvian communities. The parish was united with that of St. Vedast alias Foster. There are various furnishings from ‘lost’ City churches, including two early 18th century paintings, and the busts of Sir James Drax and his son John. They made their fortunes as the pioneers of the British sugar and slave trade on the island colony of Barbados. It has now returned to being an Anglican church and used for vocal music.
Sources include:
- Stephen Millar ‘London’s City Churches’
- R.G. Ellen ‘A London Steeplechase’
- Tony Tucker ‘City of London Churches’
- Paul Rabbitts ‘Sir Christopher Wren’
