St Katherine Cree

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name = St. Katharine Cree
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caption = View of church looking toward the Gherkin
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denomination = Anglican, earlier Roman Catholic
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address = Leadenhall Street, City of London
country = United Kingdom
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St Katharine Cree is a Church of England church in the Aldgate ward of the City of London, located on Leadenhall Street near Leadenhall Market.

The parish it serves is an extremely ancient one; it existed as early as 1108, when it was served by the Augustinian Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, which was also known as Christ Church. The site of the present church was originally the priory's churchyard and it is possible that the church had its origins in a cemetery chapel. The parishioners used the priory church but this proved unsatisfactory and disruptive to the priory's activities.

The prior partially resolved the problem in 1280 with the foundation of St Katharine Cree as a separate church for the use of the parishioners. It took its name from the priory - "Cree" is a corrupted abbreviation of "Christ Church". It was initially served by a canon appointed by the prior but this did not prove satisfactory either, in 1414 the church was established as a full parish in its own right, which it has remained ever since.

The present church dates from 1631 [ "London:the City Churches” Pevsner,N/Bradley,S New Haven, Yale, 1998 ISBN 0300096550] , with only the tower (dating to 1504) retained from the previous building. It was consecrated by William Laud in his capacity as Bishop of London; his vestments and the form of service that he used in the ceremony were later held against him in his trial and conviction for heresy, when he was accused by Puritans of having displayed Catholic sympathies through his "bowings and cringings." He is commemorated by a chapel in the church.

The church escaped the Great Fire of London in 1666 [Mentioned in Pepys Diary "Samuel Pepys-The Shorter Pepys" Latham,R(Ed) p484: Harmondsworth,1985 ISBN 0140094180] and suffered only minor damage in the Blitz of the Second World War ["The Old Churches of London" Cobb,G: London, Batsford, 1942] . However, structural problems required extensive restoration in 1962. It is used today as one of the City's Guild churches. St Katharine Cree is regarded as one of the most significant churches of the Jacobean period, a time when church-building was at a historically low ebb. It is the only Jacobean church to have survived in London. Unfortunately, the identity of its architect is unknown.

It has a handsome if somewhat inconsistent interior, with a high nave flanked by two arcades lined with Corinthian columns ["The Visitors Guide to the City of London Churches" Tucker,T: London, Friends of the City Churches, 2006 ISBN 0955394503] . The vaulted ceiling displays bosses bearing the arms of the City Livery Companies; this dates mostly from the restoration of 1962.

The chancel possesses a fine rose window, reputedly modelled on the much larger rose window of Old St Paul's Cathedral (lost in the Great Fire). The stained glass is original, dating from the 17th century.

Today the church is in a parish with St Olave Hart Street.

The church's six bells were rung in the summer of 2007 for the first time since 1880 and in November 2007 an appeal was launched to raise £60,000 to restore the bells to full ringing order. It is the only tower in the City where the bells are rung from a ground floor ringing chamber. Both HSBC and Lloyds of London have pledged money towards the appeal.

References

Famous people associated with the church

* William Laud, bishop and archbishop: "consecrated church in 1631"
* Hans Holbein the Younger's grave (1543) has been claimed by both St Andrew Undershaft church and by St Katharine Cree. St Katharine Cree's claim is stronger because the nearby abbey had been recently destroyed, while St Andrew Undershaft's graveyard was already full up.
* Both Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel played the organ at this church.

ee also

* List of churches and cathedrals of London

External links