At the corner of St Mary Axe and Leadenhall Street, in the City, St Andrew Undershaft is a Tudor parish church that has miraculously come through the centuries. Its unusual name — 'under the shaft' — recalls the great maypole once raised before it. But it owes its fame above all to one man: John Stow, the first great historian of London.
A church 'fair and beautiful'
Rebuilt in Tudor times, around 1520-1532, in the Perpendicular style, St Andrew Undershaft was described as 'faire and beautifull' by the antiquary John Stow himself. Its roof, its glazing and its Tudor architecture make it one of the few witnesses of parish London before the Great Fire of 1666, which it escaped. It offers the face of those dozens of churches that shaped the religious life of the Elizabethan City, each at the heart of its little parish of merchants and craftsmen.
John Stow, the surveyor of the city
It is here that John Stow (died 1605) rests, author of the Survey of London (1598), a meticulous street-by-street enquiry that remains the major document on the London of the late Tudor age. Without him, a great part of the topography of the vanished city would be unknown to us. His wife had a fine alabaster funerary monument raised to him, where his effigy holds a real quill pen. To this day, during the Quill Ceremony, this pen is renewed periodically — alternately by the Lord Mayor and by the Master of the Merchant Taylors. To see: the alabaster monument of John Stow with its quill, the Tudor roof and glazing, the Perpendicular ensemble.
Did you know?
Almost every year, a new goose quill is placed in the hand of John Stow's statue: during the 'Quill Ceremony', the Lord Mayor of London removes the old pen and slips a new one between the fingers of the effigy. A symbolic gesture to salute the man who first wrote the whole city.
Notes
St Andrew Undershaft lies at the corner of St Mary Axe / Leadenhall Street, City of London (near the 'Gherkin'); the church is sometimes closed — access to check.
Quiz
- Who wrote the 'Survey of London' (1598)?
- John Stow
- William Camden
- Samuel Pepys
- What does John Stow's effigy hold on his tomb?
- A goose quill
- A sword
- A crown
- What does the 'Quill Ceremony' celebrate?
- The renewal of the quill in Stow's statue
- A royal coronation
- The maypole feast