St Andrew's Holborn

I will be exploring the River Fleet for several more weeks yet, so you will have to bear with me. This morning I was looking for anything that might "remember" the Fleet from when it was still flowing above ground. There are some ancient trees further up stream, but in Farringdon it's mainly a few venerable ecclesiastical buildings.

An old wooden church on a hill above the River Fleet was recorded in 959AD. St Andrew is the patron saint of fishermen. By 1348, the church had been rebuilt in stone. It stood on the west bank of the Fleet next to one of the most important bridges over the Fleet, carrying the main road from the City to Oxford.

The church escaped the Great Fire of London in 1666, but it was in a poor state and Sir Christopher Wren decided to rebuild it anyway. The new church was completed in 1687, at much the same time as Wren turned the Fleet from the church to the Thames into a canal.

The canal didn't last long before it silted up and was full of rubbish again, so it was culverted from the church to Ludgate Circus in 1737. The last stretch of the Fleet down to the Thames was covered in 1867, when Farringdon Road and Holborn Viaduct were built.

The church we see today is a faithful 1961 rebuilding of Wren's church after it was fire-bombed in 1941. It has recently been refurbished inside and looks wonderful. When I first started working in the City many years ago, it was where my company had its Christmas carol service. I wonder how many companies have Christmas carol services today? Until a few years ago, it was also one of the most popular venues for the City of London festival which had free lunchtime concerts in lots of the City churches. 

So the church "remembers" a healthy river, a very unhealthy river, a canal and finally a road, but it has been on a busy crossroads for more than 1000 years.