History
The earliest reference to the church is in 1282. The origin of the name is disputed: Freshfield (1876) maintains it refers to the City Stocks, which at one time stood close to the church, but Huelin (1996) believes it to be a reference to the nearby Stock Exchange. Endowments were bequeathed in 1427 and 1506. The church was burnt in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren in 1671 using much of the surviving material, it was the first of his churches to be completed (Amery, 1988) at a cost of £2,098 12s 7d (Reynolds, 1922).
During the eighteenth century, the Bank of England gradually bought up adjoining properties, extending its site into the parish. In 1781 it came to an agreement with the rector of St Christopher's, and its patron, the Bishop of London, allowing it to demolish the church itself. This was not only motivated by a desire to build on the land, but also by a fear that rioters might use the church as a platform to attack the bank, a concern sparked by the Gordon Riots of 1780. The parish was united with that of St Margaret Lothbury in 1781, and the church pulled down the next year. By 1800, due to the expansion of the bank, there were only 19 houses in the parish (with 133 inhabitants), down from 92 houses in 1732.
The churchyard was also requisitioned in 1798, and now lies underneath the bank’s Garden Court. Some parish records stil exist.
A parish boundary mark (marking the boundary with that of St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange) can be seen on the front wall of the Bank of England. A similar mark is visible on the Princes Street elevation of the bank, marking the boundary with St Margaret Lothbury.
The upper panels of the pulpit dating from Wren’s 1671 rebuilding survive at St. Nicholas Church Canewdon in Essex and are a fine specimen of carving of the Grinling Gibbons style.
Read more about this topic: St Christopher Le Stocks
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