What did London blue plaque St. Mary Cole do at 36/37 Old Jewry?

36/37 Old JewryBlue Plaque

The Story

# St. Mary Cole Church, Old Jewry Standing before the blue plaque at 36/37 Old Jewry, you're standing on hallowed ground that witnessed over five centuries of spiritual life in the heart of medieval London's financial district. St. Mary Cole Church rose from this very spot in the 12th century, becoming one of the City's most beloved parishes where merchants, goldsmiths, and ordinary Londoners gathered for worship, baptisms, and burials through the prosperous medieval period and into the Renaissance. The church survived the turbulent religious upheavals of the Reformation and the Civil War, its bells ringing out across Old Jewry through countless seasons of change and uncertainty. Then on September 2nd, 1666, the Great Fire roared through these streets and consumed St. Mary Cole in its terrible flames, erasing not just the building but an entire chapter of Old Jewry's spiritual identity—a loss so complete that no trace of the original church remains today except for this small blue marker acknowledging what once stood here, reminding modern Londoners that beneath the Georgian facades and contemporary office buildings lies the ash of centuries past.

Location

36/37 Old Jewry, EC2

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