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St. Andrew Undershaft

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St. Andrew Undershaft stands at the southeast corner of St. Mary Axe Street in Aldgate Ward. Built sometime before the twelfth century, it was refurbished in 1520. Stow asserts that the Tudor rebuild saw the church roofed with timber and seeled, also the whole South side of the Church was glased (Stow). The church must have been a marvellous site upon its completion; even Stow called it faire and beautifull (Stow). The church still stands on the same site today, surviving both the Great Fire and the Blitz, in World War II.
The church of St. Andrew Undershaft is the final resting place of John Stow. A memorial near his grave, paid for by his wife, still exists today (Beer). The memorial shows him sitting at a desk, quill in hand (Dixon).
Stow notes that the church is named Undershaft because that of old time, euerie yeare on May day in the morning it was vsed, that an high or long shaft, or May-pole, was set vp there, in the midst of the streete before the south doore of the sayd Church, which shaft when it was set on ende, and fixed in the ground, was higher then the Church steeple (Stow). Henry Harben, however, disagrees. He suggests that the church was named after a permanent object near the church: the hillock or artificial knob in the middle of the street opposite the church containing a socket in which the shaft was set up (Harben).
St. Andrew Undershaft is easily identifiable on the Agas map. It is a church with a large bell tower and is identified by the label S. Andrewe Vnder Shafte.

References

Cite this page

MLA citation

Adams, Neil. St. Andrew Undershaft The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 7.0, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 05 May 2022, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/STAN8.htm.

Chicago citation

Adams, Neil. St. Andrew Undershaft The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 7.0. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed May 05, 2022. mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/STAN8.htm.

APA citation

Adams, N. 2022. St. Andrew Undershaft In J. Jenstad (Ed), The Map of Early Modern London (Edition 7.0). Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/editions/7.0/STAN8.htm.

RIS file (for RefMan, RefWorks, EndNote etc.)

Provider: University of Victoria
Database: The Map of Early Modern London
Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

TY  - ELEC
A1  - Adams, Neil
ED  - Jenstad, Janelle
T1  - St. Andrew Undershaft
T2  - The Map of Early Modern London
ET  - 7.0
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/05/05
CY  - Victoria
PB  - University of Victoria
LA  - English
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/STAN8.htm
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/xml/standalone/STAN8.xml
ER  -

TEI citation

<bibl type="mla"><author><name ref="#ADAM4"><surname>Adams</surname>, <forename>Neil</forename></name></author>. <title level="a">St. Andrew Undershaft</title> <title level="m">The Map of Early Modern London</title>, Edition <edition>7.0</edition>, edited by <editor><name ref="#JENS1"><forename>Janelle</forename> <surname>Jenstad</surname></name></editor>, <publisher>U of Victoria</publisher>, <date when="2022-05-05">05 May 2022</date>, <ref target="https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/STAN8.htm">mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/STAN8.htm</ref>.</bibl>

Documents relating to St. Andrew Undershaft

The church of St. Andrew Undershaft was within the Parish of St. Andrew (Undershaft).

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