It came there from Cannon Street Road and traced its roots to one of the early Independent congregations which met from 1642 at Haydon's Yard, Minories, and then in Smithfield.
[1] Reed had been a watchmaker's apprentice and worked at his parents' china shop in Butcher Row - Beaumont House, dating from 1581 and named for the French ambassador who lived there in the time of King James I; ornamented with roses, crowns, fleurs-le-lys and dragons, it was demolished in 1813.
In 1813, from his home in St George's Place, the East London Orphan Asylum was established, initially based at a house in Clark[e]'s Terrace, Cannon Street Road.
(A couple of years earlier, he had rescued three orphan apprentices, whose master, a shoemaker in Rosemary Lane [now Royal Mint Street] had become bankrupt - no doubt this was part of his inspiration).
In November 1820 Reed published The Pastor's Acknowledgment - A Sermon occasioned by the occurrence of the 9th Anniversary of the Ordination.He provided his own epitaph:- "I was born yesterday, I shall die tomorrow, And I must not spend today in telling what I have done, But in doing what I may for HIM who has done all for me.