Roman and medieval Roman pottery was found on the site during 2001/02 excavations in the
crypt. However, the first written record of the church itself is dated as 951 () in a charter of
Westminster Abbey, referring to it as the "old wooden church", on top of the hill above the
River Fleet. The Charter's authenticity has been called into question because the date is not within the reign of
King Edgar () who is granting it. It may be that this is simply a scribal error and that the date should be '959' (). A 'Master Gladwin', i.e. a priest, held it after the
Norman Conquest and he assigned it to
St Paul's Cathedral, but with the proviso that the
advowson be granted at 12 pence a year to the
Cluniac Order's, St Saviour's foundation of what was to become
Bermondsey Abbey. This assignment dates between 1086 and 1089. In about 1200 a deed was witnessed by James, the Parson, Roger, his chaplain, Andrew, the Deacon and also Alexander his clerk. In 1280 one Simon de Gardino bequeathed funds towards the building of a belfry, it is assumed this would be stone and that there were due to be bells to be cast for it. In the
Early Middle Ages the church is referred to as St Andrew Holburnestrate and later simply as St Andrew de Holeburn. In 1348, John Thavie, a local armourer, "left a considerable Estate towards the support of the fabric forever", a legacy which survived the
English Reformation, was invested carefully through the centuries, and still provides for the church's current upkeep. In the 15th century, the wooden church was replaced by a medieval stone one. On 8 July 1563, during a severe storm, the steeple of the church was struck and badly damaged by lightning. After being executed by hanging for the crime of serving at a Catholic Mass,
Swithun Wells was buried in the churchyard on 10 December 1591.
16th to 18th century The medieval St Andrew's survived the 1666
Great Fire of London, saved by a last minute change in wind direction, but was already in a bad state of repair and so was rebuilt by
Christopher Wren anyway. In what is his largest parish church, he rebuilt from the foundations (creating the present crypt) and gave the existing medieval stone tower (the only medieval part to survive) a marble cladding. Its rector from 1713 to 1724 was
Henry Sacheverell, who is buried beneath the church's
altar. located in
Hatton Garden are above the side door of St Andrew Holborn.
Thomas Coram is buried here, his remains were translated from his foundation in the 1960s In 1741, the
philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram set up the
Foundling Hospital for abandoned children in a house in nearby
Hatton Garden. The following year, the charity moved to new premises in
Bloomsbury and remained there until 1935. The church of
St George the Martyr Holborn was built between 1703 and 1706, as a chapel of ease for the parish. It became a parish church in its own right in 1723. In 1771,
James Somerset was baptised here. He had been brought to England as a slave and his white
Godparents later brought his case to court, resulting in a 1772 ruling that slavery was not legal in England. On November 1, 1799,
Marc Isambard Brunel married
Sophia Kingdom at the church.
19th century , 1869 In 1808, writer
William Hazlitt married Sarah Stoddart, with
Charles Lamb as his
best man, and
Mary Lamb as a
bridesmaid. The twelve-year-old
Benjamin Disraeli, the future
Prime Minister, was received into the Christian Church in 1817. It was on the church's steps in 1828 that the surgeon
William Marsden found a homeless girl suffering from hypothermia, and sought help for her from one of the nearby hospitals. However, none would take her in, and she died in Marsden's arms; the horror of the experience inspired him to establish the
Royal Free Hospital for the poor and destitute. Today the hospital is located in Hampstead. In the mid-19th century, the Holborn Valley Improvement Scheme bought up the church's North Churchyard. Many of the bodies were re-interred: some in the crypt, and others at the
City of London Cemetery in
Ilford (the latter also being the destination for the bodies from the crypt when it was cleared in 2002–2003) to make way for the
Holborn Viaduct, linking Holborn with
Newgate, which was opened by
Queen Victoria in 1869. As part of this improvement scheme the church received compensation to replace its assets, and the Gothic architect
Samuel Sanders Teulon was commissioned to build a new rectory and courthouse on the south side of the church – this now operates as the offices for the foundation, the associated charities and the Archdeaconry of Hackney, as well as the rectory and the conference rooms. Teulon incorporated into the courtroom, the building's main room, a 17th-century fireplace. This was from the 'Quest Room' for the 'below Bars' part of the parish, i.e. that lies outside the city boundary, sited as part of a block of buildings in the middle of the main street. This block was removed as part of the Holborn Viaduct improvements and explains why Holborn is so wide at this point. In
Charles Dickens's
Oliver Twist Bill Sykes looks up at this church's tower (an episode referenced by
Iris Murdoch in
Under the Net, though from where her character stands such a view is almost impossible). In Dickens'
Bleak House, Mr Snagsby's deceased partner, Peffer, is buried in the churchyard of St Andrew's.
20th century to present During the
London Blitz, on the night of 7 May 1941, the church was bombed by
German bombs and gutted, leaving only the exterior walls and tower. However, instead of demolition which sometimes occurred in similar cases, it was decided after a long delay that it would be restored "stone for stone and brick for brick" to Wren's original designs. The church was designated a Grade I
listed building on 4 January 1950.
Rectors of St Andrew Holborn • 1439–1447† Gilbert Worthington • 1447–1478† William Grene • 1478–1531 Ralph Gartside • —— • 1584–1597
Richard Bancroft (Bishop of London 1597, Archbishop of Canterbury 1604) • 1597–1611
John King (Dean of Christ Church, Oxford 1605, Bishop of London 1611) • 1611–1624† Gregory Ducket (Librarian of Cambridge University) • 1624–1662
John Hacket (Archdeacon of Bedford 1631, sequestered 1645, restored, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry 1661) • 1662–1664†
James Lamb • 1664–1665† John Taylor • 1665–1689
Edward Stillingfleet (Dean of St Paul's 1678, Bishop of Worcester 1689) • 1689–1691
John Moore (Bishop of Norwich 1691, Ely 1707) • 1691–1713
Thomas Manningham (Dean of Windsor 1709, Bishop of Chichester 1709) • 1713–1724†
Henry Sacheverell • 1724–1734† Geoffrey Barton (brother of Cutts Barton) • 1734–1780†
Cutts Barton (Dean of Bristol 1763) • 1780–1806† Charles Barton (son of Cutts Barton) • 1806–1815
John Luxmoore (Bishop of Bristol 1807, Hereford 1808, St Asaph 1815) • 1815–1819† Thomas George Clare • 1819–1838 Gilbert Beresford • 1838–1850 John Travers Robinson • 1850–1857 Jonathan James Toogood • 1858–1899† Henry George Scawen Blunt • 1899– —— Dacre Craven • 1917–1937 Edwin Curtis Bedford †
Rector died in post ==Organ==