St. Botolph Billingsgate

Names

  • St. Botolph Billingsgate
  • St. Botolph, Billingesgate
  • St. Botolph towards Billingesgate
  • St. Botolph without Billyngesgate
  • Sci Botulphi de Billingesgate
  • St. Botolph at Retheresgate
  • St. Botolph apud Billingesgate
  • Sancti Botulphi super Thamisiam
  • St. Botolph in Thames Street

Street/Area/District

  • Thames Street

Maps & Views

Descriptions

from A Dictionary of London, by Henry Harben (1918)

St. Botolph Billingsgate

On the south side of Thames Street, between Botolph Wharf and Cock's key (Leake, 1666). In Billingsgate Ward.

Earliest mention found in records: "St. Botolph," Inquisition there 1181 (H. MSS. Com. 9th Rep. App. p. 68).

Forms of name: "St. Botolph, Billingesgate," temp. John (Anc. Deeds, A. 1666). "S. Botolph towards Billingesgate," 1279–80 (Ct. H. W. I. 46). "S. Botolph without Billyngesgate" (ib. 115), 1294. "Sci Botulphi de Billingesgate," 1285 (MSS. D. and C. St Paul's, Lib. L. ff. 115–18). "S. Botolph at Retheresgate," 1296 (Ct. H.W. I. 129). "S. Botolph apud Billingesgate," 31 Ed. I. (Lib. Cust. I. 228). "Sancti Botulphi super Thamisiam," 1325 (Cal. P.R. Ed. II. 1324–7, p. 132).

The existence of St. Botolph's gate on the Thames in the time of William the Conqueror suggests that the church may have been erected long before the earliest record given above, as it seems more probable, as Stow suggests, that the gate or wharf should be named from the church, than that the church should be named from the gate.

Repaired and beautified 1624. Destroyed in the Great Fire and was to be rebuilt. Part of the site was, however, required to be thrown into the passage leading to St. Botolph's Wharf and part for the widening of Thames Street, 1668, so that it was decided eventually not to rebuild the church (L. and P. Chas. II. 1667–8. p. 182), and the parish was united to St. George, Botolph Lane.

A vicarage. Patron: the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's.

The church seems to have come into the hands of the Dean and Chapter in the 12th century by the gift of Orgar the deacon, who gave them the churches of St. Martin and St. Botulf (H. MSS. Com. 9th Report, 16 and 63).

Site now covered by warehouses.

from A Topographical Dictionary of London and Its Environs, by James Elmes (1831)

St. Botolph's, Billingsgate, the church of, was formerly in Lower Thames-street. The ancient church of this parish having been destroyed by the great fire of 1666, was not rebuilt, but the parish was by act of parliament united to that of St. George, Botolph-lane.—[See St. George, Botolph-Lane, the church of.

from London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, by Henry Benjamin Wheatley and Peter Cunningham (1891)

Botolph (St.) Billingsgate, Ward of Billingsgate, a church destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt. "A proper church," says Stow, "and hath had many fair monuments therein; now defaced and gone, by bad and greedy men of spoil." The old burying-ground of the parish, now built on, lay between Botolph Lane and Love Lane. The church of the parish is St. George's Botolph Lane.