St. Benet Fink

In modern times, on the north side of the western end of Threadneedle Street is the Bank of England building. Across the street, on the south side, is the Royal Exchange. The area has greatly changed since the mid-19^th century. St. Benet Fink church was in the past located on Threadneedle Street, close to the rear of the Royal Exchange building.

St. Benet Fink is marked “26” in Civitas Londinum (the ‘Agas map’) from about 1561.

St. Benet Fink was first mentioned in the early 13^th century but it is possibly of Saxon origin. Benet is a shortened version of Benedict. The church may have been dedicated to St. Benedict who founded the Benedictine order of monastic life, or to St. Benedict Biscop, the 7^th century Northumbrian saint. There were once four churches in the City dedicated to either of the Benedicts, of which St. Benet Paul’s Wharf still exists.

Of the dedication to Fink, the Tudor-era historian John Stow wrote:

Some distance west from…the Merchant Tailors’ Hall is Finke’s Lane, so called of Robert Finke, and Robert Finke his son, James Finke, and Rosamond Finke. Robert Finke the elder new built the parish church of St. Bennet, commonly called Finke, of the founder.

Finke Lane was at some point renamed Finch Lane.

There is now no detailed description of the old church. It seems to have been a rectangular building with a tower, as we see in the ‘Agas’ map of about 1561. In the map it appears to have a south aisle, and perhaps it also had a north aisle. It was repaired in 1433 and (according to Stow) “richly and very worthily beautified”.

The old church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. During the next few years the parish vestry made plans for its rebuilding. In 1670 a Mr. George Holman donated £1,000 towards the cost, despite him being a Catholic, which was used for the adornment of the interior. In return, Holman was to be provided with a family vault for him and his family, and two pews, in the rebuilt church. In that same year a Commission was formed to oversee and fund the rebuilding of the City churches, which paid for the reconstruction of St. Benet’s.

The north-west corner of the former building was taken away for the widening of Threadneedle Street, leaving an irregular site. In the rebuilding, Sir Christopher Wren dealt with this by creating a ten-sided shape. The new building was on an east-west alignment, different to its predecessor. At the west end was a squat tower and steeple of 110 feet in height, surmounted by a dome and small cupola. The decagon design gave it an appearance quite different to other London churches.

A foundation stone was laid in December 1670 and work proceeded at a rapid pace. The new building was constructed of brick and rubble, faced with Portland stone. The church and steeple were completed in 1675, one of the earliest City churches in which worship could resume of those destroyed in the Great Fire.

John Henry Newman was baptised at St. Benet’s in April 1801. He became a Church of England priest but in 1845 was received into the Catholic Church, and in 1879 created a cardinal.

The site of St. Benet Fink as it looks today.

The Royal Exchange was founded by the financier Sir Thomas Gresham and opened in the 1570s at the corner of Cornhill and Threadneedle Street. It was also destroyed in the Great Fire and rebuilt on the same site. It once again succumbed to fire in January 1838, this time caused by an overheated stove. It was rebuilt, but the City of London Corporation acquired part of St. Benet’s churchyard to create a space behind the new Exchange building. Initially the church steeple was demolished and a new entrance provided in the west wall. In 1846 the Corporation obtained an Act of Parliament to demolish the entire building. Its demise was supported by the Bishop of London on the grounds that it was no longer required for worship and there were other churches in the vicinity.

The parish of St. Benet was united with that of St. Peter le Poer. When the latter was demolished in 1907 both parishes were amalgamated with St. Michael Cornhill. The proceeds of the sale of the land were used to erect the new St. Benet Fink church in Tottenham. The furniture, such as the pulpit, sounding board and stairs of St. Benet’s, was sold at a knock-down price at public auction. The paintings of Aaron and Moses from either side of the altarpiece are now in a school in Battersea.

The site behind the Royal Exchange building once occupied by the church is now a paved area with a statue of the American philanthropist George Peabody, and also the La Maternité drinking fountain. On the office building that now occupies the adjacent site is a plaque, on the wall facing the fountain at the junction of Threadneedle Street and Royal Exchange Avenue.