All Hallows dates in part from as early as 675 as part of Barking Abbey having been built on the site of an older Roman building.
A doorway from the Saxon church survives whilst excavations revealed the original Roman pavement outside and the crypt contains part of the Roman building making it the oldest church fabric in London.
Interior highlights include a carved baptismal font by Grinling Gibbons and several original monumental brases.
The close proximity of the church to the Tower of London saw it used as a temporary morgue for those executed by the crown for treason including Saint Thomas More and Archbishop William Laud.
Notable are some of the American connections that All Hallows' has. President John Quincy Adams was married here and the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn was baptised here.
It survived an ammunition explosion in 1649 that destroyed the west tower and the Great Fire of London. In fact it was from the spire which he climbed that Samuel Pepys watched the fire and reported later about it in his diary.
The later conflagration of the Blitz gutted it, although rebuilding following this was completed only in 1957, seven years after the structure was given a Grade 1 listing. This listing in 1950 by the Attlee government indicates that it was seen as a priority for post-war rebuilding in a time where there was still rationing.
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