All Hallows by the Tower
The Saxon Abbey of Barking founded the church of All Hallows by the Tower in 675 A.D. An arch from the original Saxon church remains.
Beneath the arch is a Roman pavement, discovered in 1926, evidence of city life on this site for the best part of two thousand years.
Following execution on Tower Hill, numerous beheaded bodies were brought into the church, including those of Thomas More, Bishop John Fisher and Archbishop Laud.
William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, was baptised in the church and educated in the schoolroom (now the Parish Room). John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the USA, was married in All Hallows in 1797.
In 1666 the Great Fire of London started in Pudding Lane, a few hundred yards from the church. All Hallows survived through the efforts of Admiral Penn, William Penn's father.
In 1940 Hitler's bombs succeeded where the Great Fire had failed. Only the tower and the walls remained but the late Queen Mother laid a new foundation stone in 1948, and she attended the re-dedication service some nine years later.
The Vicar at the time was "Tubby Clayton" founder of Toc H. The movement's lamp of maintenance still burns in the Lady Chapel and the founder's effigy and body rest in the church.
The Roman tessellated pavement, perfectly preserved in the Undercroft, is the floor of a domestic house in the late 2nd Century.
It has a gully in it thought to be the position of a wall showing plaster at the edges.
skip2468
Amazing ! For a short time I taught at a private School. The school chapel was/is The Chapel of All Hallows ! Our son David and Fiona were married there in the early nineties. It brought the good fortune as they now have four children, twin boys and two girls.