St Peter, Westcheap, also called "St Peter Cheap",P. Norman, The London City Churches (The London Society, London 1929). "St Peter at the Cross in Cheap", or "Ecclesia S. Petri de Wodestreet", was a parish and parish church of medieval origins in the City of London. The church stood at the south-west corner of Wood Street where it opens onto Cheapside, directly facing the old Cheapside Cross. In its heyday it was a familiar landmark where the City waits used to stand on the roof and play as the great processions went past. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, together with most of its surroundings, and was never rebuilt.
In its place three shops were built on the Cheapside frontage in 1687, and the land behind continued to be used as a burial-ground and garden, which was enclosed with railings in 1712. The ancient Cheapside plane tree grows there, and with the group of houses and garden survived the Second Great Fire of London in December 1940. The garden is still maintained for public use.'St Peter Westcheap', London Parks and Gardens Trust. Here William Wordsworth was moved to write of "Poor Susan" who, hearing the song of a thrush in the busy London thoroughfare, was transported by the vision of a stream flowing through the fields and her solitary cottage in the countryside.
The small parish of St Peter Westcheap lay on the north of Cheapside, between the lower ends of Gutter Lane in the west and Wood Street in the east, and enclosed the whole of Goldsmith Street. It was mainly in the Ward of Farringdon Within, but also touched on Bread Street Ward and Cripplegate Ward.H. Harben, A Dictionary of London (Herbert Jenkins, London 1918). After the Fire it was united with St Matthew Friday Street (to the south of Cheapside). That church was demolished in 1885 and the parishes were united with St Vedast Foster Lane.
The historic location The seventh-century foundation of St Paul's stood within the Roman walls of the former Londinium. The routes leading from the Barbican or Cripplegate in the north down towards Queenhithe on the river, and from Aldgate in the east passing north of St Paul's towards Ludgate and later Newgate in the west, crossed at the junction of Wood Street with the western part of Cheapside (Westcheap). This is the backdrop for the location's importance within the developing medieval street-grid.See discussion in J. Schofield, P. Allen and C. Taylor, 'Medieval buildings and property development in the area of Cheapside', Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, XLI (1990), pp. 39-237 (LAMAS pdf at p. 49). The tradition that King Offa of Mercia (r. 757-796) (whose control of London was central to his power in the age of Charlemagne) had his palace adjacent to St Alban's church in Wood Street as its chapel may be legendary, but it draws upon Offa's role as the founder of St Albans Abbey.H.T. Riley (ed.), Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, Vol. I: 793-1290 (Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, London 1863), Sect I, p. 3 ff. The pre-Norman Conquest origins of St Albans Wood Street and of St Mary-le-Bow, and probably of St Michael Wood Street, indicated by evidence of their physical remains, preceded the development of neighbourhood churches or private chapels nearby.J. Schofield et al., 'Saxon and medieval churches in the City of London: a review', Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society XLV (1994), pp. 23-146, at pp. 91-92 (COLAT pdf, pp. 68-69). The name "Chepe" refers to a market area on the north side of the present thoroughfare, serving many different trades, which was gradually replaced by formal structures.
In the Middle Ages Cheapside formed part of the processional concourse through the city towards Westminster, and regularly witnessed all the pageantry of Coronation processions, royal and diplomatic entries and, from the time of Edward I until the 16th century, of the tourneys and civic spectacles including the annual "Midsummer Watch". At the Wood Street crossing, between St Mary-le-Bow church and the north side of St Paul's Churchyard, and directly in front of St Peter's, the Cheapside Cross was set up by King Edward I in 1291–94 as one of the "Eleanor crosses" marking the resting-places of the body of Queen Eleanor on the way to Westminster Abbey. This became a central place of public proclamation, and, being densely populated by merchants and their apprentices of all kinds, was also the scene of many public punishments and executions, and the focus of frequent popular disturbances.M. Devine, 'Cheapside Cross (Eleanor Cross)', The Map of Early Modern London, ed. Janelle Jenstad, University of Victoria, 20 June 2018: (MoEML article). In late medieval times this locality was particularly famous for its community of wealthy gold- and silversmiths. Closely within the sphere of St Paul's, and of Paul's Cross, and belonging to the Diocese of London, St Peter Westcheap stood in the heart of London's civic and ecclesiastical life.
The medieval church The church and parish of St Peter Westcheap were in existence in the 12th century. A deed of Ralph de Diceto, Dean of St Paul's c. 1180–1200, grants land in "Godrune Lane" (i.e. Gutter Lane) in the parish of St Peter (then already existing).W. Sparrow Simpson, 'Notes on the History and Antiquities of the United Parishes of S. Matthew Friday Street and S. Peter Cheap, in the City of London', Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society First Series vol III (James Parker and Co., London 1870), pp. 332-91, at pp. 340-41 (Internet Archive), citing Archives of St Paul's Cathedral. The patronage of the church belonged to the Abbots of St Albans until the Dissolution of the monasteries.'S. Peter's Cheap, Rectory', in R. Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense (Benjamin Motte, for Baker, Tooke, Parker, Bowyer and Clements, London 1708), pp. 520-22 (Google). See Thomas de la Mare's list in British Library Cotton MS Claudius E.IV fol. 342.
In early times it may have stood fully within the ward of Cheap. Walter Hervey, alderman of Cheap, who at the end of the reign of King Henry III was elected Mayor by folkmoot, sought to reorganize the Guilds and Crafts of London and issued several charters. When these were repudiated by his successor Henry le Walleis in 1273 and by Gregory de Rokesley, Hervey, coming from the Guildhall, assembled a great crowd of supporters at St Peter's church in Chepe, and promised to maintain their charters if he could. Although the repressive clearance of the Chepe followed, this was a critical moment in the development of the Guilds.W.J. Loftie, A History of London, 2 vols (Edward Stanford, London 1884), I, pp. 173-81 (Internet Archive). In June 1302, soon after the building of the Cheapside Cross, King Edward I presented William de Stanham to the church of St Peter in Wodestrete, it being in his hands by the voidance of St Albans Abbey.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward I, 1301–1307 (HMSO 1898), p. 38 (Internet Archive). Two years later the clerk of the church, John Blome, was arrested by the Sheriffs for his part in an armed affray in the Chepe between tailors and cordwainers at All Hallows' Eve.H.T. Riley, Memorials of London and London Life, in the XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth centuries (Longmans, Green & Co., London 1868), p. 54 (Internet Archive).
A long connection arose with the Mystery of the Goldsmiths, whose Hall stood in Foster Lane (closely associated with St Vedast's and St John Zachary parishes), and whose constituted patron was St Dunstan. The Craft was strongly concentrated within the parish. Edward III, granting his first charter to the Goldsmiths in 1327, stipulated that all licensed goldsmiths in the City should have their shops in the high street of Cheap, so that the assay of precious metals could be controlled and conducted near to the King's Exchange (the "Old Change").'The Goldsmiths' Company', in W. Herbert, The History of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of London, 2 vols (Author, London 1836), II, pp. 121-298, at pp. 122-29 (Internet Archive). Charter text in Inspeximus of James I, at pp. 287-89. Thomas de Winton is mentioned as rector of St Peter's in 1324 by Richard Newcourt,J.G. White (The Churches and Chapels of Old London (Private, London 1901), p. 164) makes the date 1304, and finds a notice to this effect: "Thomas de Wynton, clerk, who was presented to the church of St Peter Wood Street, London, our diocese being vacant, was canonically admitted and instituted Rector of the same by the man of God Adam de Sancto Albano, patron of this church." Adam de Sancto Albano witnesses London charters of 1330 and 1341, Calendar of Close Rolls, Edward III, VI: 1341–1343 (HMSO 1902), pp. 241-42 (Internet Archive). in the midst of the revolutionary crisis in which John the Marshal and Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter, were seized and beheaded at the "Standard" cross (at the east end of St Michael, Cornhill)J. Stow, The Survay of London (1603), pp. 269 (Google). in 1326.See, e.g., W.R. Childs and J. Taylor (eds), The Anonimalle Chronicle: From Brotherton Collection MS 29 (Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 129 (Google). G.A. Williams, Medieval London (Routledge, Abingdon 2007), pp. 285-306 (Google). In 1334 Stephen de Wallingford was installed as rector by the abbot of St Albans.Newcourt, Repertorium, p. 521. Newcourt's list and sources are updated in G.L. Hennessy, Novum Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense, 2 vols (Swan Sonnenschein, London 1898), II (HathiTrust – Restricted). Ten years later he appears as Rector and perpetual chaplain to the Hospital of St Julian by St Albans;For this institution, see 'Hospitals: St Julian by St Albans', in W. Page (ed.), A History of the County of Hertford, Vol. 4 (London, 1971), pp. 464-67 (British History Online). at a chapter held in February 1344 in the hall of his residence he ratified the reformed regulations of the house, using the seal of the lord official of London.M. Still, The Abbot and the Rule: Religious Life at St Albans, 1290–1349, New Edition (Routledge, Abingdon 2016), p. 226 (Google).
In 1348 Simon de Berkyng, citizen goldsmith, left his house in Wood Street to his children, but in default of heirs "to the alms of the Goldsmithry of London for his soul, finding a chaplain to celebrate service in the church of St Peter, Wood Street, by view of the Wardens of the Goldsmithry, for the good of his own soul and those of his father and mother."Will of "Simon de Berkyngg" dated 1348,, in R.R. Sharpe (ed.), Calendar of Wills Proved and Enrolled in the Court of Husting, London: Part I, 1258–1358 (London, 1889), pp. 542-43. See Eighth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. Report and Appendix. (Part I) (HMSO, London 1881), pp. 633-34 (Internet Archive). King Edward presented William de Kelm to the rectory in 1349.Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward III, 1348–1350 (HMSO 1905), p. 291 (Internet Archive).William de Kelm was also the name of the parish priest of Harby, Nottinghamshire, who attended Queen Eleanor at her death in 1290. Hardly the same person, but both presumably of Kelham (adjacent parish to Farndon, Nottinghamshire) or the family of that name. In 1359 John de Barton, a goldsmith who had forfeited his livery and membership for some serious transgression, made his appeal for re-admittance to the livery at St Peter's church.B.A. Hanawalt, "Of Good and Ill Repute": Gender and Social Control in Medieval England (Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 29 (Google).
The Faringdon chantry