England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
St Michael Paternoster Royal

The Parish

The parish of St Michael Paternoster Royal lay in the southern portion of the City of London quite close to the Thames and the border with neighbouring Surrey. The parish name comes from the paternoster makers (makers of rosaries) and a tenement La Reole, named after a town in Gascony, and not from any connection with the crown. The parish sits just north of Upper Thames Street, one of the main north bound thoroughfares of the city and a few yards north of Southwark Bridge, the parish covered an area dominated today by the largely commercial premises. Prior to this transcript period St Michael Paternoster Royal would almost have been a rambling warren of tiny streets and densely packed housing. By the time of this transcript the population was falling steadily as folk moved outwards into adjacent Middlesex. Nowadays there are more offices and business premises than houses. All drainage of the parish is now subsurface and heads for the nearby Thames and its estuary. St Michael Paternoster Royal is sited at roughly 10 metres above the sea on gradually rising land from the Thames banks. In common with most London City parishes St Michael Paternoster Royal covered just a small acreage and would have supported a population of around 300 parishioners by the close of this transcript.

The Church

St Michael's church is one of remaining city churches that have survived the devastation of World War II bombing and late 20th century redevelopment, it stands on College Street just a city block north of Upper Thames Street and Southwark Bridge. The church is first mentioned in documentary sources as early as c1100 although that church was replaced in 1409 by one built and funded by the semi-legendary Dick Whittington who had a house next door. That church in its turn was destroyed in the Great Fire of London but was chosen to be resurrected following that devastation. Consequently the present church was built by Sir Christopher Wren between 1685 & 1694. The basic design is a plain oblong augmented with a southwestern tower. Following completion of the basic church the steeple, which Pevsner describes as "beautiful" was added between 1713 & 1717. At least 5 restorations are documented in Pevsner, of 1820, 1866, 1894 and immediately following the limited damage of the bombing in the 1950s. Like most city churches this is one to visit on foot, and presents the usual issues of narrow streets, close-set adjacent buildings, nevertheless there are a few vantage points from which both portrait and landscape images may be made by the photographer.