All Hallows Honey Lane

All Hallows, Honey Lane was a parish church in the City of London, England.

Of medieval origin, it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and not rebuilt; the site became part of Honey Lane Market, which was in turn partially cleared to make way for the City of London School in the 19th century.

[1] John Stow's Survey of 1603 indicates the parish was part of Cheap Ward of the City of London.

[2] After the Great Fire, the site, together with that of the adjoining church of St. Mary Magdalen Milk Street and several houses, was acquired by the City, cleared, and laid out as a market-place, called Honey Lane Market.

The earliest historical reference to the church, dating from between 1191 and 1212, comes in a deed which mentions one "Helias presbyter de Hunilane".

[7] The parish of All Hallows was very small,[8] and may originally have comprised only the area of those properties which surrounded Honey Lane and the churchyard and then been subsequently enlarged in the early 13th century.

There was a suggestion in 1658 that it should be united with that of St. Mary le Bow, but the idea was dropped and the two remained separate until after the Great Fire.

In the mid-16th century, the Company appointed graduates from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, apparently in strict alternation.

[10] Dr. Robert Forman, rector from 1525 to his death in 1528 and president of Queens' College, Cambridge, over the same period, was a well-known early reformer famous for his sermons and his interest in Lutheran books and doctrines.

His curate at All Hallows, Thomas Gerrard (or Garret), himself appointed rector in 1537,[11] was even more active in spreading Lutheran doctrines.

When the City of London School was built there in 1835, the site was excavated to a depth of over 15 ft. (4.57 m.) before concrete foundations were laid.

A rough pencil sketch made at about the same time, and entitled "part of old church discovered in Honey Lane", shows the remains of masonry walls including three pointed arches over what appear to be blocked openings.

Despite the narrowness of the church, part of it was referred to as the "south aisle", and several burials took place there in the 16th century.

Honey Lane-- Ordnance Survey map of 1916, also showing the pre-1666 London Fire, All Hallows church location. [ 6 ]