St Botolph Without AldersgateGreyfriars
This is the East front of the church of St Botolph without Alsdersgate, a church built on the site of previous churches dating back probably to the time of Edward the Confessor. The church was rebuilt in 1789 by Nathaniel Wright, but this East front was rebuilt again in 1829 with a beautiful Venetiuan window, Ionic columns and a stucco pediment, the gift of the city, ot compensate the church for the lost of the previous wall due to the widening if Aldersgate Street.
Apart from this East end the remainder of the church has brown brick walls. At the West end there is a wooden bell tower built on a square dime. – east end rebuilt 1829 featuring Venetian window, Ionic columns and pediment in stucco
St. Botolph was an abbot from Essex who died in about 680. Although he was a very popular saint in medieval England, not a lot of information about his life has survived. We know that, along with his brother Adulf, he became a monk and that he founded a monastery at Icanhoh (Ox Island), probably now Boston (Botulf's stone) in Lincolnshire in 654.
After he died he was first buried at the monastery he founded, but then his body was moved in 970 to a village called Grundisburgh. A popular saint, he was again moved to a more fitting tomb in the abbey at Bury St Edmunds. But it didn’t end there, of course. Some two hundred or more years after his death, as a result of the medieval passion for owning parts of the bodies of saints, his remains were split between Ely, Thorney Abbey, and King Edgar's private chapel in Westminster Abbey. Clearly even better travelled after his death than before, Botolph fittingly became the patron saint of travellers.
Since his relics are supposed to have entered London through four important gates, Aldgate, Billingsgate, Bishopsgate and Aldersgate, at each of these a church was dedicated to him, allowing travellers to pray for his help for a safe journey, or to thank him when they arrived at their destination.Numerous cities bear Botolph’s name, including Boston in Massachusetts, which is named after his town of Boston in Lincolnshire, where many of the Pilgrim Fathers stood trial.