Christ Church Greyfriars

Christ Church Greyfriars, also known as Christ Church Newgate, was an Anglican church located on Newgate Street, opposite St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. Built first in the gothic style, then in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren, it ranked among the City's most notable pieces of architecture and places of worshipCobb The Old Churches of London p59. The church was destroyed in the Second World War; the ruins are now a public garden.

History

Gothic church

The first church was constructed between 1306 and 1348"The London Encyclopaedia" Hibbert,C;Weinreb,D;Keay,J: London, Pan Macmillan, 1983 (rev 1993,2008) ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5 as the conventual church of a Franciscan monastery established on the site. (The Franciscans' practice of wearing grey habits accounts for the word "Greyfriars" in the name.) This church was in the gothic style and ranked as the second-largest in medieval London, measuring long by across.Bradley/Pevsner, London: The City Churches p. 53. It had at least 11 altars. Extensive royal patronage helped it prosper. Benefactors included Marguerite of France, second wife of King Edward I. She was buried at the church, as was Isabella, widow of Edward II; the heart of Eleanor of Provence, wife of Henry III, was interred there as well.

Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, in 1538, King Henry VIII gifted the church to the City. The...
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