One of the old London monasteries that was closed by Henry VIII has had a colourful history related to the Reformation and has survived in various forms down to the present day. This is the Dutch Church of the Austin Friars, originally built in 1253, enlarged in 1354, and reconsecrated by Dutch and Flemish immigrants in 1550. It was described by Stow as a handsome building with ‘a most fine spired steeple, small, high, and straight. I have not seen the like’.
After the Dissolution the friars were turned out, and Henry gave the choir and transepts of their church to William Paulet, First Marquess of Winchester, who apparently used the space for storage until these parts were pulled down in 1611. However, the nave was given by Edward VI to Dutch and Flemish Protestants. Thousands of these Christians had come to England fleeing religious persecution (as later the English Separatists would go to Holland), and this place of worship was given them partly in gratitude for the aid received by Archbishop Cranmer from Protestant theologians on the Continent.
Though briefly interrupted by the reign of Mary, the Dutch congregation continued to use this building until 1940. They called it ‘Jesus Temple’. A fire in 1862 destroyed the roof and most of the old fittings; the floor with its memorial slabs and the fourteenth-century arcades were the only remaining parts of the original interior. This was all swept away by a direct bomb hit in October 1940. The foundation stone of a completely new church was laid by the Dutch Princess Irene on 23 July 1950, the 400th anniversary of its consecration by the Dutch refugees.
The new building, less than half the size of the old church, has an unusual design with rooms on different levels. A large pulpit with canopy is at the front of the sanctuary together with a communion table that can be extended for communicants to sit around it. There is some striking stained glass and a beautiful tapestry, all modern. The outside of the building, located on a narrow lane off Austin Friars, is of massed concrete rectangles.