Recorded since the 12th century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren.

Visitors to the London church may have their credencial, or pilgrim passport, stamped with the impression of a scallop shell.

Another change introduced under Henry VIII was the order that all parishes in England were to maintain a weekly register of births, deaths and marriages.

St. James was repaired and expanded several times during the first half of the 17th century – the north aisle being rebuilt in 1624[4] and a gallery added in 1644.

On 12 August 1711 Richard Steele attended a Sunday service led by the Rector Philip Stubbs at St. James, and published the ensuing reflections in Issue 147 of The Spectator.

One month after this sermon, the future composer and Master of the King’s Musick, William Boyce, was baptised in St. James Garlickhythe.

The second half of the 19th century saw a movement of population from the City of London to suburbs in Middlesex, Kent, Essex and Surrey.

The congregation had dwindled to twenty, the building was pervaded with damp and dust, which Dickens uses to convey an impression of the presence of dead parishioners.

While several nearby churches – some of architectural eminence – were destroyed under the Union of Benefices Act, St. James was spared, perhaps due to its links to the guilds.

In May 1941, during the London Blitz a 500 lb German high explosive bomb crashed through the roof of St. James and buried itself below the floor in the south aisle.

The buildings surrounding St. James were destroyed by incendiary bombs and this caused much external damage to the church, including the destruction of its clock.

In 1991, during construction of Vintners Hall across Upper Thames Street, a crane collapsed and the jib buried itself in the south wall.

It is the church for more than a dozen livery companies (Clockmakers, Coachmakers, Dyers, Educators, Fanmakers, Glass Sellers, Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers, Horners, Joiners and Ceilers, Needlemakers, Painter-Stainers, Parish Clerks, Skinners, Vintners, and Weavers), as well as being the church of the Intelligence Corps.

[10] St James Garlickhythe is in the shape of a rectangle, with the tower adjacent to the West and a protruding chancel (uniquely for a Wren church) projecting from the East.

[11] Entrance is through a pedimented doorway with a cherub keystone in the tower, which is flanked by pairs of round headed windows in the west wall.

The stone spire was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and is similar to those of St Stephen Walbrook, St. Michael Paternoster Royal and, to a lesser extent, the west towers of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The lowest is square, with a contraption of two columns standing in front of two pilasters protruding from each corner on top of which is an entablature and tiny urns.

It supports the original organ case of 1719 by Father Smith, decorated with trumpeting cherubs and palm trees.

The crystal chandelier, a gift from the Glass Sellers' Company, is a replica of that destroyed by the crashing crane in 1991 and is based on an 18th-century original hanging in Wren's Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

A royal coat of arms of the House of Stuart on the south wall and a sword rest also come from St Michael's, as do two grand doorways, now used as screens.

Analysis by the British Museum at one time had postulated that he was an adolescent who died at the turn of the 18th century[citation needed].

In 2004, Jimmy Garlick featured in the Discovery Channel documentary series Mummy Autopsy, which used modern analytical techniques including carbon dating and x-ray analysis, establishing that he died between 1641 and 1801 and that he suffered from osteoarthritis, a disease that afflicts older people.

Physical examination by the Discovery team showed that the mummy appeared to be balding and suffered tooth decay at the time of death, both consistent with an older person.

The body is now interred in a sarcophagus in the only remaining part of the church crypt, and so is no longer open for public viewing.