Tuesday 23 August 2016

London Sightseeing - All Hallows-on-the-Wall

All Hallows-on-the-Wall is a Church of England church located in the City of London. It is situated adjacent to London Wall, the former city wall, at Broad Street.



The present church was constructed by George Dance the Younger in 1767, replacing an earlier church built sometime in the early 12th century on a bastion of the old Roman wall. It became renowned for its hermits, who lived in cells in the church. All Hallows escaped destruction in the Great Fire of London in 1666 due to its position under the wall but subsequently fell into dereliction.
Dance rebuilt the church when he was only 24 years old. He had recently returned from Italy where he had conducted detailed studies of Classical buildings. The new All Hallows took its inspiration from the Classical world and was remarkably simple in form, with no aisles its interior consists solely of a barrel-vaulted nave with a half-dome apse at the far end, with decoration deriving from the ancient Temple of Venus and Rome in the city of Rome. Attached Ionic columns support a frieze, rather than the usual entablature. The exterior is plain and of brick, except for the stone- faced tower above the porch at the west end. 
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