All Hallows-by-the-Tower

All Hallows-by-the-Tower, on Byward Street in the City of London, is by tradition the oldest church in the City — a place of Christian worship founded, it is said, in the year 675, and standing in the very shadow of the Tower of London. Also known as All Hallows Barking, from its ancient connection with Barking Abbey, it is a church of extraordinary historical depth, preserving within it a Saxon arch and a Roman pavement, and bound up with the history of London from Roman times to the Blitz. Though much rebuilt after wartime bombing, it remains one of the most fascinating and venerable churches in the capital.

The origins of the church lie deep in the Anglo-Saxon period. It was founded, according to tradition, in 675, on land belonging to Barking Abbey, the great Benedictine nunnery in Essex established by St Erkenwald, who became Bishop of London, and his sister St Ethelburga, its first abbess. From this connection the church was long known as "Berkyngecherche", the church of Barking, and at Domesday in 1086 Barking Abbey is recorded as holding "half a church" in London, usually identified with All Hallows. The church preserves a remarkable relic of its Saxon origins: an arch built of reused Roman tiles, dating from around 675, which is the oldest surviving piece of Saxon church architecture in London. Beneath the church, in the crypt, survives a Roman tessellated pavement, for All Hallows stands on the site of a Roman building, and the crypt now houses a small museum of the church's long history.

All Hallows has witnessed and touched many great events. Because of its position close to the scaffold on Tower Hill, the bodies of many of those executed there — including saints, statesmen and traitors — were brought to the church for temporary burial. The church is rich in associations with famous figures: William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was baptised here in 1644, and John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, was married here in 1797, giving the church a special place in American as well as English history. In 1666 the church narrowly survived the Great Fire of London: the diarist Samuel Pepys climbed its tower to watch the flames, and the fire was halted nearby when Admiral Sir William Penn had houses pulled down to create a firebreak, saving All Hallows when so many other City churches were lost.

The church's greatest trial came in the Second World War. During the Blitz it was very badly damaged by enemy bombing, much of it reduced to a shell, though its tower and its ancient treasures survived. After the war it was extensively reconstructed, and it was rededicated in 1957. From 1922 to 1962 its vicar was the Reverend Philip "Tubby" Clayton, the founder of Toc H — the international Christian movement of fellowship and service that grew out of a soldiers' rest house in the First World War — and All Hallows remains the guild church of Toc H, whose famous lamp of maintenance burns within it.

Today All Hallows-by-the-Tower continues as an active Anglican church in the Diocese of London, a place of worship, pilgrimage and welcome in the heart of the City. With its Saxon arch, its Roman pavement, its fine brasses and its crypt museum, and its associations with William Penn, John Quincy Adams and Toc H, it is one of the most historically rich churches in London, drawing visitors from across the world.

The church stands on Byward Street, at the eastern edge of the City of London, directly overlooking the Tower of London. The Tower itself, with its Crown Jewels and its long history, lies just across the road, along with Tower Bridge over the Thames, the church of St Olave Hart Street, the riverside walks, and, a little to the west, the Monument and the other historic churches of the City, with the South Bank across the river all within easy reach.

From its foundation on the land of Barking Abbey around 675, through its Saxon arch and Roman pavement, the baptism of William Penn and the marriage of John Quincy Adams, its survival of the Great Fire and its terrible damage in the Blitz, to its rebuilding and its role as the guild church of Toc H, All Hallows-by-the-Tower gathers some thirteen centuries of London's history into one building. The oldest church in the City of London, standing in the shadow of the Tower, it remains a living church at the heart of the capital — a place where the deepest roots of Christian London are still visible.