St Mary Aldermanbury

St Mary Aldermanbury may derive its name from the Aldermans' Berry or Court Hall, now the Guildhall, which stood nearby, although it may be connected to the fact that at one time a family by the name of Aldermanbir was associated with the church. A church existed here by at least 1181 and a churchyard by c1250 at which time it belonged to the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's, who in 1331 gave it to the Elsing Spital or hospital, with whom it remained until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. To the south of the former churchyard, Love Lane has existed since at least the C14th. The church was partially rebuilt in the early C15th. It was here that John Milton married his second wife Katherine Woodcocke on 12 November 1656 and the Presbyterian Edmund Calamy was minister from 1639 to the Restoration. The old church was destroyed apart from the base of its tower in the Great Fire of 1666 and rebuilt by Christopher Wren in 1671-75. Prior to the Great Fire the burial ground was surrounded by a cloister in which, according to John Stow, hung an enormous shank bone 28.5 inches in length, supposedly that of a man. A vestry room was built over part of the churchyard in 1665.

Among those buried here were Judge Jeffreys and members of his family. Jeffreys, who 'often boasted that he had hanged more men than all the judges of England since the time of William the Conqueror' (Godwin), died in the Tower following his capture after the Revolution of 1688 while trying to flee the country dressed as a seaman; he was first buried in the Tower and his remains brought to St Mary in 1693.

Following World War II bomb damage, the site of the church and its churchyard was acquired by the Corporation of London with residual land from Wood Street Police Station, and was laid out as public gardens. The 1437 footings of the earlier church, over which Wren had built, remain in the lawn in the eastern part of the garden. In 1965-9, the remains of the fabric of Wren's building were removed to Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, USA and restored as a memorial to Winston Churchill. A plaque in the garden was placed there by Westminster College and gives the history of the church. Within the gardens are areas of lawn, flower and shrub beds, a variety of trees and an ornamental box hedged knot garden, with seating areas and a raised paved area surrounded by hedging. This has a bust of Shakespeare by Charles Allen on a granite plinth, around which are inscriptions explaining its history. The monument was 'given to the nation' by Charles Clement Walker of Shropshire in 1896 in memory of John Heminge and Henry Condell, fellow actors of Shakespeare who lived in the parish and were buried at St Mary's. It is due to them that Shakespeare's works have been handed down; after his death in 1616 they collected his works and published them in 1623 at their own personal expense. Heminge lived in the parish for 42 years and 13 of his 14 children were baptised at the church. He died in 1630 and was buried here, as was his wife. Condell lived in the parish for 30 years and 8 of his 9 children were baptised here; 6 of them were also buried here, as was Condell (d.1627) and his wife.

On the boundary with Love Lane a planter in the form of a large wicker basket was presented to the Corporation of London on 13 February 2001 by John Robinson, Past Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers in memory of his father and mother, the former also a Prime Warden. Made of live and dried willow, it was constructed by Mary Butcher and students at the City Lit (no longer in place in May 2010).