St Mary Woolnoth

St Mary Woolnoth
Saint Mary (Woolnoth) of the Nativity
The view from the Bank end of Lombard Street (2004)
Location	Lombard Street/King William Street, London EC3V 9AN
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Previous denomination	Roman Catholic
Architecture
Functional status	Regular worship
Heritage designation	Grade I
Designated	1950
Architect(s)	Nicholas Hawksmoor
Style	Baroque
Groundbreaking	1716
Completed	1727
Specifications
Bells	3
Administration
Deanery	City of London
Archdeaconry	London
Episcopal area	Two Cities
Diocese	London
Clergy
Rector	Jeremy Crossley

St. Mary Woolnoth is an Anglican church in the City of London, located on the corner of Lombard Street and King William Street near Bank junction. The present building is one of the Queen Anne Churches, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor.

The parish church continues to be actively used for services, with Holy Communion every Tuesday.

St Mary Woolnoth lies in the ward of Langbourn.

The church's site has been used for worship for at least 2,000 years; traces of Roman and pagan religious buildings have been discovered under the foundations of the present church, along with the remains of an Anglo-Saxon wooden structure. Its name is first recorded in 1191 as Wilnotmaricherche. It is believed that the name "Woolnoth" refers to a benefactor, possibly one Wulnoth de Walebrok who is known to have lived in the area earlier in the 12th century. Its full (and unusual) dedication is to Saint Mary of the Nativity.

The present building is at least the third church on the site. The Norman church survived until 1445, when it was rebuilt, with a spire added in 1485. It was badly damaged in 1666 in the Great Fire of London but was repaired by Sir Christopher Wren. Two new bells (the treble and the tenor) were cast in 1670, and in 1672 the middle bell was cast. The patched-up structure proved unsafe, however, and had to be demolished in 1711.

The church was rebuilt by the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches. Work began in 1716 and the new church was reopened for worship on Easter Day 1727. It was commissioned from Nicholas Hawksmoor, who had responded with one of his most distinctive and original designs. He benefited greatly from having an unusually open area in which to work. The old church had been hemmed in by shops and houses, like many other City churches, but these were demolished at the same time as the church. Hawksmoor was thus able to fully exploit the unobstructed front of the site. St Mary Woolnoth is Hawksmoor's only City of London church.