The parochial church of St. Alban is a rectory, and takes its name from its dedication to St. Alban, the martyr of Great . It stands on the east side of , at the south west angle of , and is supposed to be founded in by king Adlestan, or Athelstan, the Saxon, who began his reign in or about ; and was so well built, that the original foundation continued, with proper repairs, till the year , when it was pulled down, and a new church was built upon the same spot, which was destroyed years after by the fire of London. This church was originally in the patronage of the abbot and convent of St. Albans, in Hertfordshire, from whom it passed into the hands of the master, &c. of the hospital of St. James's, . But it has been in the patronage of Eton college ever since the year , when the provost and fellows of Eton presented Richard Hopton to this church.

The new church was erected, in a great measure upon the walls of the old , and was made the parish church of St. Alban in and St. Olave in by Car. II. It is situated on the east side of the street, at the northern side of ; and with the exception of the rectory-house, which is attached to the south side of the building, is insulated. The plan is irregular, in consequence of the foundations of the old church having been adhered to by the architect in the construction of the new . Although the present church is said to have been rebuilt about years anterior to the great fire, and again after that calamity, it is evident from the different styles of architecture, that considerable portions of a building older than either period have been preserved, and still exist in the present edifice. The plan gives a body and side aisles, with an attached chapel on the north side, and a tower at the west end of the north aisle, a portion of what otherwise would be the south aisle being occupied by the rectory house.

The west front of the church is bounded laterally by the tower on side, and the rectory-house on the other. The principal entrance is a poor imitation of a doorway of the century; the arch is pointed, and bounded by a sweeping canopy, ending in a finial, and ornamented with ill-formed crockets; above the doorway is a large window, which is made in breadth into divisions, subdivided by a transom into heights, forming compartments, each of which has an arched head inclosing sweeps; the arch of the window is pointed, and the head occupied by sub-arches, the spandrils of which, as well as the remainder of the design, are filled with tracery in circles and trefoils. The whole composition is either an excellent copy of a window of the latter part of the century, or, what is more probable, a remnant of the former church. The elevation is finished with a gabled parapet ornamented with upright pannels, having trefoil extremities partly destroyed by some bungling workman employed to repair the church. The tower is square, and is in stories; on the west front and northern flank are

The interior suffers in appearance in consequence of the irregularity of the plan. On each side of the nave are clusters of columns sustaining low pointed arches; the detail is far inferior to that of St. Mary Aldermary. The clustered columns are as usual attached to a square pier; but the archivolts are entirely separated from the pier by imposts formed of a continuation of the mouldings of the capitals of the columns. The division of the north aisle is occupied by the tower, and the and on the south side by the rectory-house, the several walls of which engage of the clusters of columns. From the capital of the inner column in each of the main clusters, rise slender columns united and attached to the walls of the clerestory, and which sustain on their conjoined capitals the vaulted roof; this is composed of plaster, in imitation of stone. The arch is of a low pointed form, and has a rib running along the soffit of its crown, to which the various diagonal ribs springing from the lateral columns are united; these are again crossed by shorter ribs which divide the soffit of the roof into a variety of triangles; at the intersections are bosses carved with roses and other flowers; the aisles are simply groined with diagonal cross springers, uniting in a boss, having Gothicised modillions as imposts attached to the side walls. There is a great want of solidity and relief on the various groins of this ceiling; but upon the whole, the central division may be considered as a very fair modern specimen of pointed architecture. The chapel is now walled off from the church, and divided into a porch and vestry room. The tower is approached from the church by a large doorway in its south wall; the head-way is a low pointed arch enclosed in a square head; the spandrils enriched with quatrefoils in circles; this doorway is evidently more ancient than the present church. The division of the clerestory from the west has no window on either bide, and the on the south side is closed by the wall of the rectory house. At the western end of the church is a gallery, probably coeval with the building, in which is an organ erected in . The altar screen occupies the wall beneath the principal eastern window; it consists of a central and lateral divisions, the latter have pair of Corinthian columns, sustaining an entablature and elliptical pediments; the capitals of the columns, as well as some carving on the screen and other parts of the church, are executed in lime-tree. The altar is surmounted with the royal arms, the blazonry of which have been altered at the last repair to those of the late sovereign; the wall above is painted with a curtain, and the division of the groining of the roof over it with a choir of angels. The pulpit is hexagonal, with a sounding board of the

Very many fragments of persons who had been executed for their crimes, and afterwards dissected at the barber-surgeons'-hall, in the vicinity of this church, were buried in the church-yard. The old church of St. Alban's contained several monuments to eminent persons, particularly that of sir Richard Illyngworth, baron of the exchequer; Thomas Chatworth. mayor, ; John Woodcock, mayor, ; sir John Cheke, ; and others. The most ancient was that of William Linchlade, mercer, .

The parsonage house adjoins the church, and was rebuilt in , being situated at the south-west corner of the church; it has neither yard nor garden, and must necessarily be a most unpleasant, if not unwholesome, residence.

The only monument worthy of notice is to the memory of Benjamin Harvey, esq. major of the yellow regiment of trained bands, who gave the font. He died , aged .

The reparations of the church after the great fire by sir C. Wren, were completed in . The expense was being of the lowest estimates of this architect's churches, which in itself proves that a reparation alone took place after the fire, it being impossible that the present stone building could have been rebuilt for a less sum than the brick churches of the same period. This church is feet in length, in breadth, in height, and the tower to the parapet is feet inches high, and to the finials of the pinnacles .

[] Described ante, page 427

[] In the Author's History of Lambeth, pp. 66, 67, some observations will be found on the use of hour-glasses in churches.

[] It is engraved in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xcii, part ii, p. 300.