Ruins of St Alban’s Church, Wood Street

Walking around the Barbican, you may suddenly get a glimpse of this extraordinary mediaeval-​looking tower, seemingly stuck in the middle of a street and surrounded on all sides by large modern buildings. However, given its history, it’s lucky to be there at all
The tower is in fact all that remains of the church of St Alban, Wood Street. The first church here was undoubtedly ancient, as some church records exist from the 11^th Century, and there are references to a church of that name in 793AD. We don’t know what this or subsequent churches on the site looked like, although excavations in 1962 revealed that it had a nave, chancel and west tower, to which had been added north and south chapels, later extended into aisles and another north-​east chapel. However, we do know that in 1633 its condition was sufficiently perilous that it was rebuilt in 1633 – 34 by Sir Inigo Jones.
This rebuilt church was largely destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666, and was rebuilt again in 1682 – 85 by Sir Christopher Wren, retaining the outer walls of the previous building. He added a north west tower, in the Perpendicular Gothic style in 1682 – 88, which is what we see today. It’s a handsome composition, with eight pinnacles.
The remainder of the church was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1940, and the remains cleared away in 1965, leaving the tower-​as-​traffic island we see today. It is a Grade I listed building, having been converted into a house in 1984 – 5.