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Mary Abchurch
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Location: St Mary Abchurch, City of London, London, England, United Kingdom. (51°30′42.02″N 0°5′18.05″W).
Phone: +44 20 7626 4481
St Mary Abchurch
St Mary Abchurch is a Church of England church off Cannon Street in the City of London. Dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is first mentioned in 1198-99.
History of St Mary Abchurch:
The church dates back to the twelfth century. After the Reformation, Archbishop Parker persuaded Elizabeth I to grant the church to his college, Corpus Christi, Cambridge, before St Martin's was demolished and the college has appointed the incumbent ever since.
Restored and beautified in 1611, it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666, and rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren in 1681–86 with a four-storey, 51-foot-high tower, a leaded spire, and a red brick exterior with stone dressings. It was originally intended to be much larger, with a structure similar to St. Stephen Walbrook, however for reasons unknown the church was rebuilt to a smaller scale under the supervision of Robert Hooke.
A bomb hit the church in September 1940 during the London Blitz. The greatest damage was to the dome, and Gibbons' reredos. Godfrey Allen repaired the church between 1948–1953. The dome was repainted by Hoyle and the reredos, smashed to pieces, was painstakingly restored over a period of five years. The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.
