A church has been on this site since the 11th century.
Although three fires and German bombing during World War II required the rebuilding of this Anglican church, the structure was one of the few churches to escape the great London fire of 1666.
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The church's website (
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"St Giles is thought to have been a hermit, date unknown; his feast day is 1st September. We are told Giles was one of the most popular saints of Western Europe in the later middle ages, yet the Penguin Dictionary of Saints hasn't a lot to say about him: it just says he is someone 'about whom very little is known.' The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church puts flesh on the story. Giles is described as being one of the 14 Auxiliary Saints, the 14 Holy Helpers, venerated for the supposed efficacy of their prayers on behalf of those in need. Others include George and Christopher. According to a 10th century biography, Giles was an Athenian who fled to France. He made himself a hermitage in a forest near the mouth of the Rhone. We are told he lived on herbs and the milk of a hind. One day when Flavius Wamba king of the Visigoths was hunting in the forest, he chased a hind to the abode of the hermit and was so impressed by Giles' holiness that he built him a monastery.
We are not told if Giles was happy with an arrangement which would seem to defeat the purpose of holy solitude. An alternative story is that one day when the king was hunting he shot and arrow to kill the hind. Giles put out his hand to protect the animal, and was himself wounded. Hence his emblem is an arrow and he is portrayed with a hind. He is looked upon as the special saint of cripples, beggars and blacksmiths.
St. Giles’ Church Cripplegate is one of the few remaining medieval churches in the City of London and is at the heart of the Barbican development. It is said that there has been a church on this spot for a thousand years. We know nothing about the early Saxon church, which was probably a little chantry or chapel made of wattle and daub. In 1090 a Norman church stood on this site, built by Alfune who afterwards assisted Rahere in building the neighbouring church of St Bartholomew the Great. Sometime during the Middle Ages, the Church was dedicated to St. Giles.
•The word "Cripplegate" has nothing to do with cripples, although no doubt there would have been plenty of cripples by the Cripplegate, wanting alms from travellers as they entered and left the City. The word comes from the Anglo-Saxon "cruplegate" which means a covered way or tunnel which ran from the town gate of Cripplegate to the Barbican, a fortified watchtower on the City wall. Sections of the wall can be seen near the Church; the foundations are generally Roman but higher up the structure is of varying dates as it was regularly strengthened and rebuilt. In 1760 the gate, up to then used as a storehouse and a prison, was sold to a carpenter in Coleman Street for £91. The Church was outside the wall at the Cripplegate, hence 'St. Giles without'.
As the population of the parish increased, the church was enlarged and was rebuilt in the perpendicular style in 1394 during the reign of Richard II. It has been extensively restored on three occasions after fire damage. The first fire occurred in 1545 in the reign of Henry VIII. The restoration plans of that year remained in Lambeth Palace, and were used in the restoration after the Second World War by Godfrey Allen. The church was built in the perpendicular, late Gothic, style that emphasises vertical lines, particularly in the window tracery. The spaces between the windows and between the columns of the arcade, are generous. The columns are slender with their thin, filleted, diagonal shafts. This provides a spacious, open, light church.
The main difference between the present and the medieval church is that the separation of the chancel and the nave has become less obvious. There is now little to show the difference, except the corbels representing musicians which support the clerestory shafts of the original chancel. What appears to be a remarkably truncated chancel is just that, for the end wall was once extended further back.
The church escaped the Great Fire of London in 1666 but was badly burnt in the Cripplegate Fire of 1897 and again during the Second World War. There was a direct hit on the north door in the summer of 1940, and in the following December the church was showered with so many incendiary bombs that even the cement caught alight. All that remained was the shell, the arcade in the chancel, the outside walls and the tower.
The roof, the furnishings and most of the monuments were destroyed, but some valuable items were saved. These include Church Registers, which date from 1561 and are now in the Guildhall Library; two oil paintings of previous vicars, one of which, of Dr William Nicholls, is under the tower; our silverware and vestments; and the 19th century lectern, which you can see in the chancel, a memorial to Bishop Andrewes. These had been stored away in the muniment room, which was separated from the main body of the church by only a few feet but escaped all the incendiary bombs.
On the right of the east window, part of the medieval church has been deliberately exposed for visitors to see. It is the sedilia where the priests sat and the piscina used for washing communion vessels. The tiles in the arch are of Roman origin. The floor was raised during Queen Victoria’s reign, when also the outside walls were surfaced with Kentish rag stone, one or two windows were altered and some stained glass was put in the church. Around the windows on the north wall the inside stonework has been left blackened."