Gloucester Court, EC3N
Monument station
Credit: Pixabay/tonysell
Gloucester Court is off Tower Hill to the north west side of the Tower, running northwest behind the church of All Hallows by the Tower.

Gloucester Court was created out of the eastern end of Great Tower Street which, until the end of the 19th century, used to continue to Tower Hill. In a programme of major alterations a section of Great Tower Street, from Rood Lane to Mark Lane, was widened, and at the same time, Byward Street was constructed to provide a more convenient access to Trinity Square. Thus the narrow east end of Great Tower Street was rendered redundant, pedestrianised, and called a court. At the western end, where the Court has more recently become Tower Place, there are a number of seats.

Along side the Court at its western end is the church of All Hallows, more correctly titled All Hallows Barking, with its dedication to the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the Saints. Barking, because it was founded as a chapel for the nuns of Barking Convent. The date of its foundation is unknown but certainly there has been a church on this site since the 13th century and possibly much earlier. All Hallows is steeped in history, contributed to by its close proximity to the Tower. Victims of the unsavoury happenings on Tower Hill were often temporarily accommodated until a final resting place could be arranged. John Fisher, after remaining headless on Tower Hill for a whole day, was taken by order of the King to be buried at All Hallows. Humphrey, Duke of Monmouth after suffering at the hands of a drunken executioner found momentary repose there. Archbishop Laud and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey too had passing graves in the churchyard of All Hallows.

It narrowly escaped destruction in the Great Fire thanks to the quick thinking of Admiral Penn who sent workmen to blow up neighbouring houses, so creating a gap and starving the flames of fuel. However, the last war took its toll when the church was severely damaged by incendiary bombs.

John Quincy Adams who later was elected President of the United States was married here in 1797, so too was the infamous Judge Jeffries who in later years knelt at the mercy of the executioner only yards away on Tower Hill. William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, was baptised in the church in 1644.

In 1922 All Hallows was made the Guild Church of Toc H. The constantly burning ‘Lamp of Maintenance’, from which all Toc H lamps are lit, is kept here.

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