Parish boundary mark on side of St Pauls Choir School

Panyer Alley site of St Michael-le-Querne

St Michael-le-Querne, also called St Michael ad Bladum, was a parish

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

in the Farringdon Within Ward in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

. It was destroyed in the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Wednesday 5 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old London Wall, Roman city wall, while also extendi ...

of 1666 and not rebuilt. The name is apparently a reference to a

quern-stone A quern-stone is a stone tool for hand-grinding a wide variety of materials, especially for various types of grains. They are used in pairs. The lower stationary stone of early examples is called a ''saddle quern'', while the upper mobile st ...

as there was a corn market in the churchyard.

History

The church stood immediately to the north east of Paternoster Row in Farringdon Within Ward. Its dedication derives from a 12th-century reference to its proximity to a corn market. It was in existence by 1181, when it was recorded in a survey of land and churches belonging to

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

. St Michael's was rebuilt in 1430, the City having given small strips of land on the north and east sides to allow for its enlargement, and "repaired and beautified" in 1617. The antiquarian John Leland, who died in 1552, was buried in the church.

Destruction

Along with the majority of the parish churches in the City, St Michael-le-Querne was destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666. A Rebuilding Act was passed in 1670, and a committee set up under

Sir Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; – ) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was acc ...

, decided to rebuild 51 of the churches. St Michael's was not among them. Instead the parish was united with that of

St Vedast Foster Lane Saint Vedast Foster Lane or Saint Vedast-alias-Foster, a church in Foster Lane, in the City of London, is dedicated to Vedast, St. Vedast (Foster is an Anglicisation of the name "Vaast", as the saint is known in continental Europe), a French sain ...

. The site of the church was cleared to allow for the widening of Cheapside, although Richard Newcourt noted that "some small part of one Corner of the Steeple, was for Ornament and Uniformity, added to the Houses there built."

History

Destruction

References

Further reading