St Bartholomew-the-Less came into existence as a hospital chapel at the same time as the nearby priory, both being founded by Rahere in 1123. It has been on the present site since 1184, but the earliest parts of the remaining building are the fifteenth century tower and west end. In 1789 George Dance the Younger replaced the decayed nave with a wooden octagon, and this in turn was rebuilt in stone and iron in 1823 by Thomas Harwick. This architect’s grandson did further work on it in 1865, and bomb damage required an extensive restoration after World War II.
A new doorway that accommodates wheelchairs has been opened at the south end of the east wall. Note the nineteenth-century octagonal lantern perched on the old tower, topped by an attractive weather vane. Although still the chapel for St Bart’s Hospital, this has been a parish church since the Dissolution (the hospital is its parish). Entering by the door under the tower, note the two fifteenthcentury brasses of William Markby and his wife in the vestry on your left. There is a sixteenth-century canopied tomb on the west wall of the tower to John Freke, surgeon, and on the north wall of the nave is a monument to Lady Elizabeth Bodley, wife of Sir Thomas Bodley who founded the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The stained-glass windows of the apse were done after the war by Hugh Easton and depict the Virgin and Child in the centre, with St Luke (the physician) on the left and St Bartholomew and Rahere on the right.