St Mary Woolchurch Haw was a parish church in the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

, destroyed in the Great Fire of London

Great Fire of London

The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...

 of 1666 and not rebuilt.

History

The church of St Mary Woolchurch Haw was an ancient foundation, dating from the time of
William I, when it was given to the Abbot and Convent of St John's, Colchester. It became the property of the crown after the dissolution

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

The name is said to be derived from that a beam that was once fixed in the churchyard, which was used for weighing wool. The church was rebuilt in the reign of Henry VI. At the end of the sixteenth century John Stow

John Stow

John Stow was an English historian and antiquarian.-Early life:The son of Thomas Stow, a tallow-chandler, he was born about 1525 in London, in the parish of St Michael, Cornhill. His father's whole rent for his house and garden was only 6s. 6d. a year, and Stow in his youth fetched milk every...

 described it as "reasonably fair and large", and John Strype

John Strype

John Strype was an English historian and biographer. He was a cousin of Robert Knox, a famous sailor.Born in Houndsditch, London, he was the son of John Strype, or van Stryp, a member of a Huguenot family whom, in order to escape religious persecution within Brabant, had settled in East London...

 recorded that it was "richly repaired and beautified, at the Charge of the Parishioners" in 1629.

St Mary Woolchurch Haw was one of the 86 parish churches destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666. In 1670 a Rebuilding Act was passed and a committee set up under the stewardship of Sir Christopher Wren

Christopher Wren

Sir Christopher Wren FRS is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history.He used to be accorded responsibility for rebuilding 51 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710...

 to decide which would be rebuilt. Fifty-one were chosen, but St Mary Woolchurch Haw was not among them. The parish was united to that of St Mary Woolnoth

St Mary Woolnoth

St. Mary Woolnoth is an Anglican church in the City of London, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, located on the corner of Lombard Street and King William Street near the Bank of England.- Early history :...

.

The Mansion House

Mansion House, London

Mansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of London in London, England. It is used for some of the City of London's official functions, including an annual dinner, hosted by the Lord Mayor, at which the Chancellor of the Exchequer customarily gives a speech – his...

now stands on the site.