England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
St Alban Wood Street

The Parish

The parish of St Alban lay towards the northern edges of the city of London within the walls of the medieval city but close to the wider county of Middlesex  The parish occupied an area south of today's Barbican centre, also just to the southeast of the Museum of London at London Wall . St Alban was one of the smaller parishes in the ancient city, a city of small parishes, it covered less than 3 city blocks either side of Wood Street which was also shared with another church, that of St Michael. At the time of this transcript the area was still moderately inhabited with residents but today it is in the heart of the city's commercial area with few night-time inhabitants, the area being dominated by office blocks and the services that meet their needs. The parish suffered markedly from the ravages of the Great Fire of London its warren of tiny courtyards and properties a forgotten memory, the original medieval church was also destroyed. This area of the city has largely sub-surface drainage and with the Thames only a few hundred metres south most water readily makes its way there. St Alban sat at just 12 metres above the sea with land only gently rising a further 5 metres or so within a mile or two. Despite occupying a relative tiny area compared to rural parishes nevertheless at the time of this transcript almost 600 parishioners would have crammed into its tiny acreage.

The Church

St Alban, as its qualifier suggests, sits on Wood Street, in fact it sits, or what remains, sits as a traffic island in the centre of Wood Street, roughly 50 metres south the expressway of London Wall to its north. This is a church with a bitter history, the original medieval church was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666. First mentioned in documents as early as 1085 but excavations of 1962 revealed an even earlier building perhaps associated with King Offa of the 8th century, on what is clearly one of the City's earliest religious sites. Whilst many parishes were never replaced after that fire, St Alban was rebuilt as one of London's "Wren Churches", built between 1682 & 1685 in a Perpendicular style with the northwestern tower in parallel but completed in two stages, the first two in 1687, the top two the year later. Sadly the church was badly damaged during London Blitz and little survived in what was a shell of its former glory. The bulk of the church was demolished in 1955. The remaining tower was restored to good order in 1964 and finally in the mid-1980s converted into a house. The tower's situation, standing aloof in the middle of a quiet back street with traffic passing to either side, is quite unique. Like all of London's city churches this is one to visit on foot walking from one of the local tube stations to do so.