All Hallows London Wall

Location:

All Hallows London Wall, also named "All Hallows by the Wall" or "All Hallows near London Wall" is an Anglican church situated in the City of London, In Broad Street Ward. Parish extends into Aldgate and Bishopsgate Within Wards, adjacent to London Wall, the former city wall.

The present church was constructed by George Dance the Younger in 1767, replacing an earlier church built some time in the early 12th century on a bastion of the old Roman wall. It became renowned for its hermits, who lived in cells in the church. All Hallows escaped destruction in the Great Fire of London in 1666 due to its position under the wall, but subsequently fell into dereliction.

Many interesting details relating to the church and parish are contained in the transcript of the Churchwardens' Accounts of the parish for '455 to 1536, edited by Charles Welch (Pub. L. and M. Arch. Soc. Trans.), and not the least interesting are the particulars relating to the famous ankers or anchorites and the anker-hold connected with the church and parish which are so frequently referred to in early London records.

It has been found, in the course of recent excavations in 1905, that the church was built on the Wall of London, and that the foundations of the bastion here were used in the rebuilding of the circular vestry in the 18th century. This was exposed to view in 1905 by the removal of houses, and the excavations and discoveries made are set out in Arch. lx.