St. Clement Eastcheap

If you search for St. Clement’s on Eastcheap, you’re looking in the wrong place. It stands a short distance away on Clements Lane which, during the Middle Ages, was where Candlewick Street (the old name for Cannon Street) met Eastcheap. It was known back then as St. Clement Candlewickstrate. After London Bridge was realigned and King William Street laid out in the 19^th century, the church was separated from both Cannon Street and Eastcheap by the new road layout.

St. Clement’s stands on St. Clement Lane, close to the junction with Candlewick Street (Cannon Street) and Eastcheap, as shown in Civitas Londinum (the ‘Agas map’) from about 1561.

The earliest record of St. Clement’s was in 1067 when grants of living were confirmed by William the Conqueror. It is dedicated to the third Bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter, who was martyred by the Romans by being thrown into the sea. He therefore became the patron saint of sailors.

The small medieval church was rebuilt but it was one of the first to be destroyed in the Great Fire. It was rebuilt under Wren and completed in 1687. He received a third of a hogshead of wine from the parishioners for his efforts. Following the Great Fire, the parish of St. Martin Orgar, which was not rebuilt, and its parish was united with that of St. Clement’s.

It is an irregular oblong shape.  The brick tower with stone quins is in the south-west corner, without a spire. It is aligned to the street and at a slight angle to the building. The interior consists of a nave and south aisle under a high, flat plaster ceiling, and containing rich wood panelling. There were extensive renovations and alterations made during the late Victorian period by William Butterfield, but partially restored back to Wren’s original by Sir Ninian Cooper in the 1930s. In 1968 a further redecoration was made. There is the remnant of the old churchyard behind the building.

This is one of two churches that can claim to start the nursery rhyme, “Oranges and lemons say the bells of St. Clements…” (the other being St. Clement Danes at Aldwych). St. Clement’s remains the parochial church of a very small parish. It is now one of three in the City that are part of the IMPRINT group of independent churches, with limited opening times outside of services.