England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
St Bartholomew the Great

The Parish

The parish of St Bartholomew the Great lay in the northwestern portion of the City of London quite close to the city boundary with wider Middlesex. The parish sits just west of Aldersgate Street, one of the main north bound thoroughfares of the city and covered an area dominated today by the former Smithfield Market. Prior to this transcript St Bartholomew the Great would almost have market the northern edge of the city and was 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 although the student population of St Bartholomew's Hospital keep the nighttime population higher. All drainage of the parish is now subsurface and heads for the nearby Thames and its estuary. St Bartholomew the Great is sited at roughly 15 metres above the sea on gradually rising land, the edges of the Thames floodplain. In common with most London City parishes St Bartholomew the Great covered just a small acreage and would have supported a population of around 3,000 parishioners by the close of this transcript.

The Church

St Bartholomew the Great is located just to the west of the Barbican and sits on the northern side of Cloth Fair. The site was initially that of the priory church of an Augustinian Priory founded in the 11th century and was originally almost 300 feet in length. The present church is an amalgam of fragments of that church and later additions and enhancements. The original nave was demolished following the dissolution leaving the chancel, crossing tower and the two transepts. Of these features only the chancel is original and of the early 12th century, the transepts were rebuilt in the 19th century. The remainder of the church is later but built on earlier and often Norman features. Much was added in the 14th century including the Perpendicular style clerestory windows and the lady chapel. In the 17th century the western, brick tower was also added whilst the porch is late-Victorian. The church sits behind iron railing on Cloth Fair its western end even protruding into the street, the building is typically hemmed in by properties and there are few proper perspective views able to be photographable.