St Mary Aldermary (or St Mary Elder Mary), is an Anglican guild church located on Bow Lane at the junction with Watling St, in the City of London. Of medieval origin, rebuilding began under the Tudor Henry VIII in 1510 and was not finished until the reign of the Stuart monarch Charles I in 1632. Severely damaged just 33 years later during the Great Fire of London in 1666, it was rebuilt once more, this time by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. Unlike most of Wren's City churches, St Mary Aldermary was reconstructed in the Gothic style, an outstanding example of the first — 17th century — Gothic Revival. Nearly a millennium after its foundation SMA continues to offer a place for contemplation (as well as coffee and cake) with pre-work 8am gatherings three times a week (Mon: Silent meditation; Weds and Fri: Taize) and after work at 6pm on Wednesday (Weds 6pm: Still Point).
History
A church has occupied the site for more than 900 years. Its name is usually taken to mean that it is the oldest of the City churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It has also been suggested that, on Bow Lane, it is the older St Mary’s with respect to nearby St Mary Le Bow. The patronage of the rectory of St Mary Aldermary belonged to the prior and chapter of Canterbury, but was transferred to the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1400.
In 1510, Sir Henry Keeble financed the building of a new church. The tower was still unfinished when he died in 1518. In 1629, two legacies enabled it to be completed, and the work, begun 120 years before, was finished within three years. Keble was buried in a vault beneath the floor of the church, but his grave was not allowed to remain for long. Richard Newcourt recorded that Sir William Laxton, who died in 1556, and Sir Tho. Lodge, who died in 1583 (both which were Grocers and had been Mayors of this City), were buried in the Vault of this Sir Henry Keeble, his bones unkindly cast out, and his Monument pull'd down, in place whereof, Monuments were set up of the others. John Stow mentions various dignitaries buried in the early church in his 1598 Survey of London. They include Richard Chaucer, vintner, said by Stow to be the father of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer. John Milton married his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, in the church in 1663 (Curiously, he seems to have married his second at St Mary Aldermanbury). The parish registers date from 1558, and are now deposited in the Guildhall Library.
In 1599 a group of citizens from St. Antholin's founded a lectureship. They gave property in London to pay for a daily lecture in the pulpit at St. Antholin’s and the church became famous as a lecture theatre. The Great Fire burned down the church but daily lectures carried on; it was rebuilt but was demolished in 1870 and the lecture was transferred to St. Mary Aldermary. The lectures are now organised by the Church Society.
Rebuilding after the Great Fire
St Mary Aldermary was badly damaged in the Great Fire of London of 1666, although parts of its walls and tower survived. It was mostly rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren in a Gothic style. A legacy of £5,000 had been left by one Henry Rogers for the rebuilding of a church, and his widow agreed to use it to fund the reconstruction of St Mary's. According to some sources, she stipulated that the new church should be an exact imitation of the one largely destroyed.
The church, as rebuilt, has an aisled nave, six bays long, with a clerestory. It has a short chancel. The tower is attached to the south-west corner of the building, and is entered through a western lobby. The tower is divided into storeys by string courses; the corners lead up to octagonal turrets, terminating in what George Godwin called "carved finials of impure design". The church’s nave and aisles are separated by arcades of clustered columns, supporting somewhat flattened Gothic arches. The ceilings are decorated with elaborate plaster fan vaulting.
According to Nikolaus Pevsner, St Mary Aldemary is "the chief surviving monument of the 17th-century Gothic revival in the City and – with Warwick – the most important late 17th-century Gothic church in England".
The parish of the church of St Thomas the Apostle, destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt, was united with that of St Mary's.
In 1781 a new organ was installed, built by George England.
Wartime damage
St Mary Aldermary was damaged by German bombs in the London Blitz during the Second World War.