St Ann Blackfriars
church in City of London, UK
St Ann Blackfriars was a church in the City of London, in what is now Ireland Yard in the ward of Farringdon Within. The church began as a medieval parish chapel, dedicated to St Ann, within the church of the Dominicans (the order after whom the Blackfriars district of London is named). The new parish church was established in the 16th century to serve the inhabitants of the precincts of the former Dominican monastery, following its dissolution under King Henry VIII. It was near the Blackfriars Theatre, a fact which displeased its congregation. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666.
History
The church of St Ann was built on part of the site of the monastery of the Dominicans or "Black Friars". The monastery was dissolved by King Henry VIII, and in 1550 the precinct was granted to Sir Thomas Cawarden, the Master of the Revels, who largely demolished the buildings on the site. During the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip, Cawarden was required to provide a parish church for the residents of the precinct. The interior of the old church having been converted into tennis courts, Cawarden allowed them what John Stow described as "a lodging chamber above a stair". This building fell down in 1597, and the parishioners purchased an additional piece of ground to the west from Sir George Moore, and rebuilt the church on a larger scale. A warehouse was constructed beneath the new part of the church, at the cost of the parishioners, for the use of Sir Jerome Bowes, who held the land under lease.
“St Ann Blackfriars” enters the record as church in City of London, UK. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Blackfriars, church and City can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“St Ann Blackfriars” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Blackfriars, church and City provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7592469. Authority coordinates are 51.513, -0.102. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1666, 1550 and 1597.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “St Ann Blackfriars” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.