St Augustine's Church - St Paul's Churchyard, London, UK - News Article Locations on Waymarking.com

The Time Magazine website in the free overview, tells the story that occurred in October 1948:

A Times obituary called her "a London stray," but a memorial plaque on the wall of the little Church of St. Augustine-with-St. Faith-under-St. Pau's-Cathedral, flanked by citations from two continents, testified that she was more than that. The plaque told of a night when Faith, a gentle grey and white cat, had "endured horrors and perils beyond the power of words to tell" and through them all "stayed calm and steadfast." Even the Times paid tribute to this heroine who "stuck, while the bombs fell, to her kitten."

A subscription is required to read the remainder of the story and, for that reason, it is not included here.

To read another version about the times and life of Faith try the Purr-n-Fur website. A note at the foot of the article tells us:

Note: In spite of extensive research in the national newspaper archive, looking at national, London and church publications, it has not been possible to find any reference to the ceremony at which Faith was presented with her medal. This is puzzling, especially as the Sunday Dispatch was mentioned specifically; no mention was found in that paper in the few days following the ceremony. However, the dates of the bombing of the church, and of Faith's death, are correct and were reported in The Times. What ultimately became of Faith's medal and citation is also unknown.

The tower is a Grade I listed building with the entry at the English Heritage website telling us:

Church tower rebuilt 1680-4 and completed in 1695-6, by Christopher Wren with a spire designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor; church body destroyed in 1941 and spire of 1830 reconstructed by Paul Paget of Seely and Paget, 1966. Square plan.

EXTERIOR: Portland stone tower in three stages with oculus at second stage and rectangular belfry apertures at the third stage, this capped with a cornice, a lacy Baroque pierced parapet and corner pinnacles of Baroque obelisks. Rising behind this is the lead spire, restored in 1967 to Hawksmoor's original design, and featuring curved brackets rising to an open stage with urns and the distinctive elongated onion dome. To the south is a pedimented door, and to the east, exposed rubble walling and quoins at lower stage.

Attached to the north is the Grade II* St Paul's Cathedral Choir School (q.v.) of 1962-7 by the Architects' Co-partnership.

INTERIOR: Stages of the tower include a full height open well stair cases that serves as a fire escape for the attached school. Ladder stair into spire not inspected.

HISTORY: The church had been rebuilt 1680-4 following the Great Fire of 1666, and the tower was completed in 1695-6 with a tall leaded spire that was modified in 1830. However, the body and spire were destroyed in 1941 bombing and a 1953 photograph shows all that remained standing were the bottom two stages of the tower with its four Baroque obelisk finials. In 1966, the spire was reconstructed according to its original design by Paul Paget of Seely and Paget. Drawings survive in the hand of Nicholas Hawksmoor to show that he designed the original spire, with its brackets rising to an open stage with urns and the distinctive elongated onion dome. His drawing c.1695, however, shows the onion dome as an elongated pineapple with the crown serving as an extra finial. This design, but with the onion, not the pineapple, is largely what we see today, although it is an immaculate post-war reconstruction.

The adjacent school was built in 1962-67 and the brief dictated that the new building should incorporate the restored spire of St Augustine and that no part of the school would be higher than its cornice.

Wikipedia also tells us:

St Augustine, Watling Street was an Anglican church which stood just to the east of St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. First recorded in the 12th century, it was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666 and rebuilt to the designs of Christopher Wren. This building was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War, and its remains now form part of St Paul's Cathedral Choir School.

The church stood on the north side of Watling Street, at the corner with Old Change] According to Richard Newcourt, the dedication was to St Augustine of Canterbury, rather than St Augustine of Hippo. The earliest recorded mentioned of the church is from 1148. In 1252–3 Alexander le Cordwaner made a grant of land on the north side for its enlargement. John Stow, writing at the end of the 16th century called St Augustine's " a fair church," adding that it had been "lately well repaired." The church was partly rebuilt, and "in every part of it richly and very worthily beautified" in 1630–1, at a cost to the parishioners of £1,200. The foundations of the northern half of the medieval church were revealed when burials were removed in 1965. The archaeological evidence indicated that the 12th century church was about 61 feet (19 m) long, the thirteenth century extension 59 feet (18 m) long and 16 feet (4.9 m) wide.

The medieval building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.

After the fire the parish was united with that of St Faith's, whose congregation had previously worshipped in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral. St. Augustine's was rebuilt to a design by Christopher Wren; the foundations, revealed by the excavations of 1965, were mostly of re-used stones set in mortar. The new church opened in September, 1683, but the steeple was not finished until 1695.

The interior was about 51 feet (16 m) long – shorter than the medieval building [3] – 45 feet (14 m) wide and 30 feet (9.1 m) high. The nave was divided from the aisles by an arcade supported on Corinthian columns with unusually high bases. The naves and aisles were barrel vaulted, the nave vault being pierced by three skylights on each side. There were galleries on the north side, and at the west end, but the latter was taken down when the organ was moved to the south side. The walls were originally panelled to a height of 8 feet (2.4 m), but this was later considerably reduced. The reredos had Corinthian columns and the pulpit was of carved oak. The pulpit was modernised by Arthur Blomfield in 1878.

Rectors of the church included John Douglas, later Bishop of Carlisle, from 1764 to 1787, and Richard Harris Barham, author of the Ingoldsby Legends, from 1842 until his death in 1845.

The church was destroyed by bombing in 1941. It was not rebuilt, but the tower was restored in 1954. and later incorporated into a new choir school for St Paul's Cathedral, completed in 1967.

The remains of the church were designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.

The church cat, named Faith, became quite well known after the air raid which destroyed St Augustine's. Days before she was seen moving her kitten, Panda, to a basement area. Despite being brought back several times, Faith insisted on returning Panda to her refuge. On the morning after the air raid the rector searched through the dangerous ruins for the missing animals, and eventually found Faith, surrounded by smouldering rubble and debris but still guarding the kitten in the spot she had selected three days earlier. The story of her premonition and rescue eventually reached Maria Dickin, founder of the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals, and for her courage and devotion Faith was awarded a specially-made silver medal. Her death in 1948 was reported on four continents.