The earliest mention of this church was 1219. A new building was constructed in 1409 with money provided by the famous merchant and lord mayor Richard Whittington, associated by legend with St Mary-le-Bow. Wren rebuilt it between 1686 and 1689, and the steeple was completed in 1713. In 1944 it was blasted by a flying bomb, and its latest reconstruction took place in 1968.
‘Paternoster’ and ‘Royal’ are associations with the rosary-maker and vintner trades which flourished near here in early times. Everyone recognizes ‘Paternoster’ or ‘Our Father’ as the opening words of the Lord’s Prayer used in the rosary. ‘Royal’ is actually derived from the name of the town of La Reole near Bordeaux where much of the London wine was obtained.
This church, not far from the banks of the Thames, was next to the estate of the fabled Dick Whittington, as already mentioned. In addition to providing funds for the rebuilding of the church, this good man founded a ‘college’ or religious community, together with an almshouse, ‘to provide for such pouer persons which grevous penuere and cruel fortune have oppressed, and be not of power to get their lyving either by craft or by any other bodily labour’. Members of the community were required by Whittington’s will to pray daily for his soul and that of his wife. Whittington’s sumptuous memorial was destroyed during the Reformation in the sixteenth century. College Street takes its name from the aforementioned college.
The restored Wren building has a simple exterior with a pleasant tower and steeple on one corner. It is set back in a little garden. Inside, the altar-piece, lectern, pulpit and door cases are the original carved wood, and there is a fine candelabrum which predates the building (1644). Note the modern stained glass by John Hayward on the south side. The window on the west end depicts young Dick Whittington with his indomitable cat and, above, London with streets of gold surmounted by the lord mayor’s seal.