All Hallows-by-the-Tower

Reconstruction during 1955, after extensive damage in the Blitz.

The origin and early history of All Hallows-by-the-Tower church are obscure.[2] At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 the church belonged to Barking Abbey, a wealthy Benedictine nunnery in Barking, Essex, originally established in the 7th century. The association with Barking was a long one, and All Hallows church was already known as "Berkyncherche" in the 12th century. According to Domesday Book in 1086, Barking Abbey possessed "28 houses and half a church" in London: although the church is not named, it is usually identified with All Hallows.[2][5]

The original Anglo-Saxon abbey of Barking was founded by Earconwald or Erkenwald before he became Bishop of London in about 675, and it has been claimed that the land on which All Hallows stands was granted to the abbey, and the first church established, at that time. Although this is a tempting assumption, it is doubtful.[2] A charter dated to 687, listing properties belonging to Barking Abbey at that time, includes two pieces of land in or near London.[7] One of these was simply described as "iuxta Lundoniam", near/next to London, the other as "supra vicum Lundoniae", that is, in "Lunden-wic", the Anglo-Saxon town that had grown up in the area of the Strand, a mile to the west of the old Roman city of Londinium; neither description matches the location of All Hallows church, inside the wall of the Roman city on the eastern side.[2]

In 1940, during World War II, the clearance after destruction caused by bombing revealed an archway built of reused Roman tiles and stonework, set in a surviving wall of the medieval church. The reuse of Roman building materials, and comparison with arches in the early Anglo-Saxon church at Brixworth, Northamptonshire, suggested that the All Hallows arch was very early in date, and that the original church could have been built in the 7th century.[8] This seemed to confirm the belief that the church had been founded as a daughter church of Barking Abbey at about the same time as the abbey itself was established.[4][9] However, more recent research, and archaeological evidence that Roman tiles and stone were being used in the construction of other London churches as late as the 11th century, suggest that the arch belongs to this later period.[6][5] Fragments of three 11th-century stone crosses also found during clearance works after the bombing,[8] now displayed in the crypt, are consistent with an 11th-century date for the first church.[6][5]

The church was expanded and rebuilt several times between the 11th and 15th centuries.[5][10] Its proximity to the Tower of London meant that it acquired royal connections, with Edward IV making one of its chapels a royal chantry and the beheaded victims of Tower executions being sent for temporary burial at All Hallows.

The interior

The church was badly damaged by an explosion in 1650[11] caused when some barrels of gunpowder being stored in the churchyard exploded; its west tower and some 50 nearby houses were destroyed, and there were many fatalities.[12] The tower was rebuilt in 1658, the only example of work carried out on a church during the Commonwealth era of 1649–1660. It only narrowly survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 and owes its survival to Admiral William Penn, father of William Penn of Pennsylvania fame, who had his men from a nearby naval yard demolish the surrounding buildings to create firebreaks. During the Great Fire, Samuel Pepys climbed the church's spire to watch the progress of the blaze and what he described as "the saddest sight of desolation".

Restored in the late 19th century, All Hallows was gutted by German bombers during the Blitz in World War II and required extensive reconstruction, only being rededicated in 1957.

The main-altar mural, a post-war work by Brian Thomas

Many portions of the old church survived the War and have been sympathetically restored.[13] Its outer walls are 15th-century, with the Saxon arch doorway surviving from the original church. Many brasses remain in the interior. (The brass rubbing centre which used to be located at All Hallows is now closed). Three outstanding wooden statues of saints dating from the 15th and 16th centuries can also be found in the church, as too an exquisite Baptismal font cover which was carved in 1682 by Grinling Gibbons for £12, and which is regarded as one of the finest pieces of carving in London. The main-altar's reredos mural is a post-war work by Brian Thomas.

In 1999 the AOC Archaeology Group excavated the cemetery and made many significant discoveries.[14]

The church has a museum called the Undercroft Museum, containing portions of a Roman pavement which together with many artefacts was discovered many feet below the church in 1926. The exhibits focus on the history of the church and the City of London, and include Saxon and religious artefacts. Also on display are the church's registers dating back to the 16th century, and notable entries include the baptism of William Penn, the marriage of John Quincy Adams (which is the only marriage of a U.S. president that occurred on foreign soil), and the burial of Archbishop William Laud.[15] Laud remained buried in a vault in the chapel for over 20 years; his body was moved during the Restoration to St John's College, Oxford.

The altar in the crypt is of plain stone from the castle of Richard I at Athlit in The Holy Land.[16]

All Hallows-by-the-Tower has been the guild church of Toc H since 1922. The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.[17]

The church also has a Carillon which was brought back to working order in the 1970s by Philip Blewett, then a priest at the church, and Desmond Buckley over many weekends.

The Knollys Rose Ceremony, which held every year in June, starts at the church.

• John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States: married 1797
• Judge Jeffreys, notorious "hanging judge": married 1667
• William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury: beheaded at the Tower, buried 1645
• Thomas More, beheaded at the Tower for refusing to sign Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy: buried 1535
• John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, beheaded at the Tower 22 June 1535: buried
• Lancelot Andrewes: baptised 1555
• William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania: baptised 1644
• Albert Schweitzer, made organ recordings at All Hallows
• Philip Clayton, also known as 'Tubby', former vicar and founder of Toc H[18]
• Cecil Thomas, a sculptor who provided several funerary figures between the Wars[19]
• Cecil Jackson-Cole, founder of Help the Aged, Action Aid, co-founder of Oxfam and supporter of Toc H

The organ

The earliest records of an organ in All Hallows is one by Anthony Duddyngton dating from 1521. This was presumably lost during the English Civil War.

An organ was installed in 1675 by Thomas and Renatus Harris. In 1720 a new case was built by Gerard Smith. The organ was restored and improved by George Pike England in 1813, Bunting in 1872 and 1878, and Gray and Davison in 1902. There was further work by Harrison and Harrison in 1909 and 1928. After destruction in 1940, a new organ by Harrison and Harrison was installed in 1957.

• List of buildings that survived the Great Fire of London
• List of Churches in London
• Malta George Cross Memorial (located just outside the church)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to All Hallows-by-the-Tower.

• Official website
• Location map (Multimap.com)
• Mystery Worshipper Report at the Ship of Fools website
• London Landscape TV episode (6 mins) about All Hallows By The Tower church