St Leonard's Church, Shoreditch, London

Image: © David Hallam-Jones Taken: 21 Sep 2019

Apparently the Anglo-Saxon word “suer,” meaning stream, led to this former hamlet being named “Shoreditch”. This ‘blessing’ however, later undermined its first medieval church, leading to its demolition. Even St Leonard’s, the present church, dating from 1740 and designed by George Dance the Elder, experienced problems with flooding with the need for the ground level to be built up to counter this. The church is known as “The Actors’ Church”, on account of the number of thespians buried within its precincts, many of whom performed at “The Theatre” and “The Curtain Theatre” in Shoreditch in the post-Medieval period. In addition, James Parkinson, the Surgeon and Apothecary, who described the disease that was posthumously given his name was born (and later practised) in nearby Hoxton Square. He was a church warden here and is buried in a unmarked grave in the adjacent graveyard, now a public park.

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