Also on this street is the church of St. Botolph's-without-Aldersgate, and the site of the Moravian meeting room where John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, reaffirmed his faith on Wednesday 24 May 1738, which is marked by a plaque.
The others were St Botolph's, Billingsgate (destroyed by the Great Fire and not rebuilt); St Botolph's, Aldgate; and St Botolph's, Bishopsgate.
•
The east façade, towards Aldersgate Street, is a screen wall, erected in 1831, executed in Roman cement, with a pediment and four attached Ionic columns standing on a high plinth, with a Venetian window between them.
•
The plain exterior is in contrast to what John Betjeman called an "exalting" succession of features inside.
St Botolph's Church, Boston | St Botolph | Aldersgate | St. Botolph's-without-Aldersgate | St Botolph's (The Stump) | St Botolph's Aldgate | St Botolph's Aldersgate | Morley Saint Botolph | Aldersgate College |
The Augustinian priory of St Botolph, generally called "St Botolph's Priory", was also established in the 11th century.
The Church of England parish church or St Botolph has some of the oldest surviving wall paintings in the country, including an image of Saint George at the Siege of Antioch in AD 1097.
The earliest information is that in 1524 Taverner travelled from Tattershall, Lincolnshire, to the Church of St Botolph in nearby Boston as a guest singer.
The ecclesiastical parish was united with that of the Church of Holy Trinity, Minories, in 1899.
•
St Botolph's was rehallowed on November 8, 1966 by the Bishop of London, in the presence of the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and Sir Robert Bellinger, the Lord Mayor of London, who attended in state.
Most of the priory's holdings, including the advowson, were transferred to Magdalen College at the University of Oxford in the late 15th century, and except for a few years from 1475 this institution nominated the rector until 1953, when the right of presentation was voluntarily surrendered to the Bishop of Chichester.
Coles followed his Christian leanings and, after periods as a journalist for the Times Literary Supplement and Catholic Herald, he was ordained in the Church of England, spending time as the curate of St Botolph's (The Stump) in Boston, Lincolnshire and as assistant priest at St Paul's Knightsbridge and Chaplain to the Royal College of Music.
He then came to London, and was for some time minister of St. James's, Garlick Hythe, and then obtained the rectory of St. Botolph, Aldgate.