St Edmund the King and Martyr

St Edmund King and Martyr
Saint Edmund the King and Martyr
Photo of the church today
Location	Lombard Street, London EC3V 9EA
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
Previous denomination	Roman Catholic
Architecture
Functional status	Consecrated but no regular worship
Heritage designation	Grade I
Architect(s)	Sir Christopher Wren
Style	Baroque
Administration
Deanery	City of London
Archdeaconry	London
Episcopal area	Two Cities
Diocese	London

St Edmund, King and Martyr, is an Anglican church in Lombard Street, in the City of London, dedicated to St Edmund the Martyr.

Once a parish church, it no longer is used for regular worship. Instead, since 2001 it houses the London Centre for Spirituality, now (2017) renamed the London Centre for Spiritual Direction, but is still a consecrated church.

The church lies in the ward of Langbourn, and has a ward noticeboard outside.

In 1292, the church is first recorded as 'Saint Edmund towards Garcherche', and it reappears in 1348 as 'Saint Edmund in Lombardestrete'. John Stow, in his Survey of London 1598, revised during 1603, refers to it also as St Edmund Grass Church.

The medieval church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. After the fire the parish was united with that of St Nicholas Acons, which was also destroyed and not rebuilt. The present church was constructed to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren in 1670–1679, with a tower ornamented at the angles by flaming urns in allusion to the Great Fire. George Godwin described the tower as "more Chinese than Italian", while James Peller Malcolm called it "rather handsome, but of that species of architecture which is difficult to describe so as to be understood".

The orientation of the church is unusual, with the altar towards the north, instead of east.

Rectors of the church have included Thomas Lyndford, chaplain in ordinary to George I, and Jeremiah Milles, president of the Society of Antiquaries. After the Great War, Studdert Kennedy was given charge of St Edmund, King and Martyr. He moved to work for the Industrial Christian Fellowship, for whom he went on speaking tours of Britain. It was on one of these tours that he was taken ill. He died in Liverpool in 1929, exhausted at the age of 45, and poor people flocked to his funeral in Worcester, for the Dean of Westminster refused burial at the Abbey because, he said, Studdert Kennedy was a "socialist".The essayist Joseph Addison was married here in 1716.