St Swithin's Church London Stone, Candlewick Street
- thedudleywomen
- 6 days ago
- 8 min read
In the days following the death of Henry VII, and the succession of his son, Henry VIII, to the English throne in April 1509, Edmund Dudley was arrested and imprisoned within the Tower of London. Later arraigned on charges of constructive treason, the deceased king's privy councillor and chief financial officer, was found guilty and subsequently sentenced to death. Despite his ongoing protestations against this conviction, including written petitions for his pardon and release, on 12 March 1510, whilst imprisoned in the Tower of London, ultimately awaiting his fate, Dudley composed his last will and testament (Paul, 2022).
See THE DUDLEY WOMEN post: The Execution of Edmund Dudley - 17 August 1510
In his will, Dudley made multiple bequests, despite a Bill of Attainder being read at the opening of Parliament in January 1510, which when passed, would confiscate his goods and wealth, and return any property to the Crown. Regardless, one of the bequests that Dudley made was to the church of St Swithin's in London, "where I lived" (Wilson, 2005; British History Online, 2026).
St Swithin's Church was situated on Candlewick Street, the original name for Cannon Street, located just within the boundaries of Walbrook Ward. Also known as 'St Swithun London Stone', the church, dedicated to the 9th century Bishop of Winchester, stood on the south-west corner of St Swithin's Lane, adjoining a house which, in the early years of the 16th century, was inhabited by Edmund Dudley. This large and sumptously decorated building was both Dudley's place of business, where large amounts of money "flowed through [his] account books", as well as his primary residence, which he shared with second wife, Elizabeth Grey, and their young family. This Candlewick Street property was known to have shared access to a garden with another house which was at the time under the control of the Priory of Tortington, Sussex, where his first wife Anne Windsor had been buried. Originally constructed in the 13th century, the church had been rebuilt and extended in 1420 in order to serve the city's expanding population, Candlewick Street being home to many involved in the cloth industry: weavers, drapers and merchants (Stow, 1663; Cobb, 1977; Paul, 2022, p.27).
Located on the south side of Candlewick Street, opposite the church, stood a block of limestone, known as the London Stone. There have been many theories over the centuries as to its origins, including Roman, Saxon and Druid; whilst this cannot be confirmed, the stone is acknowledged to be one of London's oldest relics, and as such many myths and superstitions surround it (London Museum, 2026). Elizabethan historian and antiquarian John Stow, in his published 1603 work The Survey of London described the London Stone:
"On the South side of this high streete, neere unto the channell, is pitched upright a great stone called London-stone, fixed in the ground very deepe, fastned with bars of Iron, and otherwise so strongly set, that if Carts doe runne against it through negligence, the wheeles be broken, and the stone it-selfe unshaken. The cause why this stone was there set, the time when, or other memory hereof, is none; but that the same hath long continued there is manifest, namely since (or rather before) the conquest... Some have said, this stone to be set, as a marke in the middle of the Citie within the walles: but in truth it standeth farre nearer unto the River of Thames, than to the wall of the Citie, Some others have said the same to be set for the tendering and making of payment by debtors to their creditors, at their appoynted dayes and times, till of later time, payments were more usually made at the Font in Pouls Church, and now most commonly at the Royall Exchange..."
(Stow, 1633, p.243).
Over a century and half after the execution of Edmund Dudley, in September 1666, an accidental fire which started in a bakery on Pudding Lane and was not properly extinguished, which caused 'The Great Fire of London': a blazing inferno, which burned for four days, causing mass destruction and devastation to the city. The fire spread over 430 acres, burning down over 13,200 homes, in addition to 87 of the city's 109 churches (London Fire Brigade, 2025).
See THE DUDLEY WOMEN post: The Great Fire of London - September 1666
St Swithin's, being less than 500 metres from the fire's point of origin, was one of the city's churches destroyed in the four-day blaze. Navy board official Samuel Pepys, in his private diary, recorded a first-hand account of the fire's spread, as well as the monarchy and city's officials response to it. The fire appears to have reached and destroyed St Swithin's within twelve hours on the first day. On the morning of 02 September 1666, Pepys made his way into the city, and observed the fire, noting its destruction and ongoing rapid spread; he recorded this morning that the fire had spread west, destroying houses and churches, including St Laurence's Poultney, situated only 150 metres from St Swithin's. Pepys stated that it was at 'Canningstreet', the name which Candlewick Street was now been called, that he encountered the City of London's Lord Mayor, Sir Thomas Bludworth: "At last met my Lord Mayor in Canningstreet, like a man spent, with a handkercher about his neck. To the King’s message he cried, like a fainting woman, 'Lord! what can I do? I am spent: people will not obey me. I have been pulling down houses; but the fire overtakes us faster than we can do it'" (Diary of Samuel Pepys, 2026).
!['ANOTHER PROSPECT OF THE SAYD CITTY [FAMOUS CITTY OF LONDON] TAKEN FROM THE SAME PLACE [FROM S. MARIE OVERS STEEPLE IN SOUTHWARKE] AS IT APPEARETH NOW AFTER THE SAD CALAMITIE AND DESTRUCTION BY FIRE IN THE YEAR M.DC.LXVI' Wenceslaus Hollar, 1667, © London Museum](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ed9b82_b198683b1c4149ba873b8b9b1dd3fe21~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_422,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/ed9b82_b198683b1c4149ba873b8b9b1dd3fe21~mv2.jpg)
The blaze changed the landscape of the City of London forever; many of the medieval and Tudor buildings which until this time continued to stand were destroyed or significantly damaged, and so for safety, needed to be demolished; these included well-known landmarks such as the city's Guildhall, Newgate Prison and St Paul's Cathedral. Plans were initially proposed for the complete redesign and rebuild of the city, designed by writer and landowner John Evelyn and young architect Christopher Wren; however, these ambitious plans were rejected due to ongoing property disputes. Wren did go to design and oversee the building of fifty new churches throughout the city, on the remains of their former sites, adhering to new mandatory regulations, which had been passed by an Act of Parliament to ensure, the use of stone and brick, to prevent similar catastrophes in the future (London Museum, 2025).
St Swithin's was one of the churches chosen to be rebuilt after the Great Fire. Another nearby church, St Mary's Borthaw, approached by a lane adjoining the south side of Candlewick Street, was demolished in 1669, on the orders of the Mayor London. St Mary's parish subsequently merged with St Swithin's, and the materials used to rebuild the new church, to Wren's designs (Jenkinson, 1917).
![St Swithin's, London Stone, 1930s ©Simon Knott [Flickr]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ed9b82_5b801be531324a0292ae95a5df567b7a~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_980,h_1851,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/ed9b82_5b801be531324a0292ae95a5df567b7a~mv2.jpg)
Whilst the church was being rebuilt, the Worshipful Company of Salters, one of the city's twelve merchant guilds, lent the use of their meeting hall to the parishioners of St Swithin's. Historically based on Bread Street, near to St Paul's, in 1641 the company who were associated with the salt trade, had purchased the property "at London Stone in the Parish of St. Swithin", with a larger hall being built to accommodate the growing membership. The building located on St Swithin's Lane, was also destroyed by the Great Fire, but by 1668, had been rebuilt on its foundations (Cobb, 1977; The Salters' Company, 2026).
The new church was completed and consecrated in 1679; Cobb (1977, p.51) describes the rebuilt St Swithin's Cannon Street - as it became known - complete with its lead-covered spire, as "really medieval in spirit". An intricately-designed vane, made from wrought iron, topped the spire; this was originally a phoenix, symbolising the church's rise from its ashes. As with other churches in the immediate surroundings, including Wren's own parish church St Stephen's Walbrook and the nearby St Mary's Abchurch, St Swithin's, whilst having a plain exterior, displayed "individual beauty" with its interior dome, in addition to its furnishings, including wooden carved pulpit. The church continued to serve its parishioners until May 1941, when it was once again lost to a blazing inferno (Bradley and Pevsner, 2002).
During the Second World War, between September 1940 and May 1941, London was subject to a systematic bombing campaign by the Nazi German forces. During the night of 29 December 1940, bombs were dropped on the area, with a landmine landing on nearby Sherbourne Lane, causing damage to buildings on St Swithin's Lane, blowing out window shutters and doors. However, a "heavy attack" took place on the night of 10-11 May 1941; Air Raid Warden P.C. Hoyland documented the catastrophic events of that night. He recounted that the sky was filled with "hundreds of planes", both German bombers and allied fighters, with the sound of anti-aircraft shells and then bombs breaking the "unusually quiet" city. Hoyland recalled that around midnight of 11 May, "incendiaries...must have lodged in the roof of St. Swithin's church at the bottom of the lane as by now it was blazing fiercely and flames were soon roaring skywards lighting up the whole neighbourhood". As with the Great Fire almost three hundred years previously, Hoyland described a rapid spread of flames "owing to the high wind", describing how fire and smoke had "enveloped the whole of the City", including nearby Salters' Hall. With the cessation of the attack, and intervention from the fire service, the flames started coming under control in the early hours, although Hoyland wrote how small fires continued to burn throughout the day and into the evening, including at St Swithin's Church - "flames...appeared at the windows of the London Stone". For the second time, St Swithin's was unsalvageable; the parish merged with St Stephen's Walbrook, and the church was never rebuilt. Its ruins continue to stand until the land was sold off in 1959, when it was finally demolished (The Rothschild Archives, 2026).
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