St Clement's, Eastcheap

St Clement Eastcheap
St Clement Eastcheap Clements Lane, London
St Clement's Church, October 2006
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Website	Official website
Architecture
Heritage designation	Grade I listed building
Architect(s)	Sir Christopher Wren
Administration
Parish	St Clement, Eastcheap
Diocese	London
Division	Archdeaconry of London
Subdivision	City Deanery
Clergy
Bishop(s)	Bishop of London
Priest(s)	Interregnum
Archdeacon	Archdeacon of London
Laity
Organist(s)	Ian Shaw

St Clement Eastcheap is a Church of England parish church in Candlewick Ward of the City of London. It is located on Clement's Lane, off King William Street and close to London Bridge and the River Thames.

Clement was a disciple of St Peter the Apostle and was ordained as Bishop of Rome in the year 93 AD. By legend, Clement was martyred by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the Black Sea, which led to his adoption as a patron saint of sailors. The dedication to St Clement is unusual in London, with only one other ancient church there dedicated to this saint, namely St Clement Danes, Westminster. It is also located a little north of the Thames, but further west from Eastcheap and outside the old City boundary, just beyond the Temple Bar on the Strand.

Eastcheap was one of the main streets of medieval London. The name 'Eastcheap' derives from the Saxon word 'cheap', meaning a market, and Eastcheap was so called to distinguish it from Westcheap, later to become Cheapside. The southern end of Clement's Lane opened onto Eastcheap until the 1880s when the construction of King William Street separated Clement's Lane from Eastcheap, which still remains nearby as a street.

The church's dedication to a Roman patron saint of sailors, the martyr Bishop Clement, coupled with its location near to what were historically the bustling wharves of Roman London, hints at a much earlier Roman origin. Indeed, Roman remains were once found in Clement's Lane, comprising walls 3 feet thick and made of flints at a depth of 12–15 feet together with tessellated pavements.