Postman's Park - Historical Background

Historical Background

The 13th-century church of St Leonard, Foster Lane, about 200 yards (180 m) north of St Paul's Cathedral on Foster Lane, was badly damaged in the 1666 Great Fire of London, and was not considered to be worth the cost of rebuilding. Its parish was united with nearby Christ Church Greyfriars, in an expanded church built by Sir Christopher Wren; the incumbent vicar from that time onwards has held the joint titles of Vicar of Christ Church Greyfriars and Rector of St Leonard, Foster Lane. Although destroyed in 1666, the ruins of St Leonard, Foster Lane, were not cleared until the early 19th century.

Despite the unification of the parishes of Christ Church Greyfriars and St Leonard, Foster Lane, the churches continued to operate separate burial grounds. Christ Church Greyfriars' burial ground was a short distance northeast of the church, on the eastern side of King Edward Street, and St Leonard, Foster Lane's, was about 50 feet (15 m) further east.

Immediately outside the London Wall at Aldersgate, a short distance north of St Leonard, Foster Lane on Little Britain, is the church of St Botolph's Aldersgate (sometimes referred to as "St Botolph Without Aldersgate", a reference to its position immediately outside the historic city gate). Although the original church, first mentioned in 1493, had survived the Great Fire, it was demolished between 1754 and 1757 and replaced in 1790 by the current building.

St Botolph's Aldersgate was a wealthy parish, having been granted the assets of the nearby Cluniac priory and hospital during the 16th-century Dissolution of the Monasteries. The parish was historically a significant place of worship, possibly best known as the site of the evangelical conversions of John Wesley and Charles Wesley.

To the immediate southwest of the church building, St Botolph's Aldersgate owned an irregularly shaped churchyard enclosed by Aldersgate Street to the east, the Christ Church Greyfriars burial ground to the west, housing and the burial ground of St Leonard, Foster Lane to the south and housing along Little Britain to the north. The churchyard was used as a burial ground and as a public open space. As with other City churchyards, as the amount of available burial space in London failed to keep pace with the growing population it came to be used exclusively as a burial ground.

Postman's Park has always been situated in the ward of Aldersgate. Its association with (and location within) that ward was reaffirmed in the most recent boundary review that took place in 2010; the ward boundary will be drawn around the southern edge of the park upon boundary changes effected in 2013.