St. Giles' without Cripplegate

St. Giles' without Cripplegate

On the south side of Fore Street, in Cripplegate Ward Without (P.O. Directory).

First mention: Grant by Aelmund to the canons of St. Paul of his church of St. Giles built outside the walls, temp. H. I. (H. MSS. Com. 9th Rep. 62).

Stow says it was built by Alfune about 1090 (pp. 34 and 432). He is quoting from the Liber S. Bartilmew which refers to the erection of the church of St. Giles not long before that of St. Bartholomew the Great (Cott. MS. Vespasian B. IX. p. 15).

Amongst the archives of St. Paul's, letters from Edmund, Bishop of London are preserved to the effect that the church of St. Giles had belonged to the Dean and Chapter from time out of mind (H. MSS. Com. 9th Rep. p. 50).

Forms of name: "S. Giles of Crupelgate," 3 John (Anc. Deeds, A. 2119). "S. Giles without Cripelgate," 1242 (Cal. Ch. Rolls, H. III. I. 273). "S. Giles," Abbot, 1309–10 (Ct. H.W. I. 210). "S. Giles outside Cripelgate," 10 Ed. II. (Ch. I. p.m. 10 Ed. II.).

There was a Fraternity of St. Mary and St. Giles in the Church, founded in the 13th century (Cal. P.R. Rich. II. 1391–6, p. 170).

Stow (p. 432) says the first church stood where the Vicarage house now is (shown on O.S. 1875). But this is not certain, and some writers think that the tower forms part of the original structure and that the present church stands on the old site, or approximately so (Miller, 47).

It was rebuilt in the 14th century on its present site, on the bank of the Town Ditch (Denton, p. 22). Burnt down 1545, but rebuilt (S. 432), a "very fayre and large church" (ib. 301–2). Repaired 1623–9 and spire rebuilt 1629. Repaired again 1704 (Strype, ed. 1720, I. iii. 82). Late Perpendicular. Restored 1862, Edmund Woodthorpe, architect.

A Vicarage. Patron: Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's.

The dedication to the French hermit-abbot St. Giles suggests the French influence of the Norman conquest. St. Giles was regarded as the especial patron of cripples and beggars.

St. Giles, Cripplegate, The church of, is situated without the walls of London and at the south-west corner of Fore-street, nearly opposite the ends of Redcross-street and Whitecross-street. It derives its name from having been dedicated to a saint of that name, who was a native of Athens and flourished about the year 700 of the Christian era, who was abbot of Nismes, in France, and its addition from its situation.

This church was built and founded about the year 1090, by Alfune, the first master of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and was destroyed by the fire in 1545. The present structure was then erected, which is one of the few churches in the city that escaped the great fire of 1666. It is of the pointed or English style of architecture, is 174 feet in length, 63 in breadth, and 32 in height.

The site of this parish was anciently a fen or moor, and its houses and gardens were accounted a village without the wall of London called Mora, whence the district called the Moor and Moorfields. This village increased greatly, and was constituted a prebend of St. Paul's cathedral, which it still continues, under its ancient name, and the prebendary of Mora, or Mora without the Wall of London, hath the ninth stall on the south side of the choir in St. Paul's cathedral. Nigellus Medicus is said to have been the first prebendary.

Part of the ancient City Wall is still remaining on the south and east sides of the church-yard, particularly one of the bastions, which is close against the back part of Barber's Hall, in Monkwell-street.

In this church are deposited the mortal remains of many eminent authors; among which are, Speed, the historian and topographer; Fox, the author of the Book of Martyrs; Glover, the antiquary; and, above all, Milton, the author of Paradise Lost.

The patronage of this church was originally in private hands, till it descended to Alemund, who granted it, after the deaths of himself and of Hugh, his only son, to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, in whom it still continues. The church is a vicarage, in the city and archdeaconry of London, and the present vicar is the Rev. William Holmes, Sub-Dean of the Chapel Royal, and Priest in Ordinary to the King, a Minor Canon of St. Paul's, and Rector of Aveley, in Essex, who was instituted in 1802.