Medieval church The church was founded before 1291. The earliest recorded rector was John de Steventon in 1333. The living was originally in the possession of
St. Martin's-le-Grand, but on the
dissolution of the priory,
King Henry VIII granted it to the bishop of the newly founded
Diocese of Westminster. The
patronage eventually passed to the dean and chapter of
Westminster Abbey. During the Middle Ages, there was a hospital for the poor outside Aldersgate. A
Cluniac foundation, it was suppressed by
King Henry V as an alien house, and its lands and goods were granted to the parish of St Botolph. The Gothic-style medieval church was divided into aisles and a nave by arcades. There were three gables at the east end.
Eighteenth-century rebuilding The church escaped the
Great Fire of London with only minor damage, under the supervision of Nathaniel Wright, surveyor to the north district of the City of London. The new church was built of brick, with a low square bell tower at the west end constructed on the remains of its stone predecessor. The interior has wooden galleries supported on square panelled columns, a semi-circular
apse with a half dome, a highly decorated plasterwork ceiling, and, at the east end the only 18th century stained glass window in the City of London, a depiction of
The Agony in the Garden painted by
James Pearson. Some monuments were preserved from the old church, including the tomb of Anne Packington, who died in 1563. ==Churchyard==