Dutch Church, Austin Friars
The Dutch Church, Austin Friars, is a reformed church in the Broad Street Ward, in the City of London. Located on the site of the 13th-century Augustinian friary, the original building granted to Protestant refugees for their church services in 1550 was destroyed during the London Blitz.
The world's oldest Dutch reformed church
Edward VI Granting Permission to John a Lasco to Set Up a Congregation for European Protestants in London in 1550, attributed to Johann Valentin Haidt (1700–1780)
Portrait of Willem Thielen, minister of the Dutch Church, 1634 by Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen
The Dutch Church (1820) by Edward Wedlake Brayley from A Topographical and Historical Description of London and Middlesex
Austin Friars, London was an Augustinian friary in the City of London from its foundation, probably in the 1260s, until its dissolution in November 1538. It covered an area of about 5.5 acres a short distance to the north-east of the modern Bank of England and had a resident population of about 60 friars. A church stood at the centre of the friary precinct, with a complex of buildings behind it providing accommodation, refreshment and study space for the friars and visiting students. A large part of the friary precinct was occupied by gardens that provided vegetables, fruit and medicinal herbs.
Administration entrance to Drapers' Hall, pictured in 2012. The site of Thomas Cromwell's House
The Dutch Church (1820) by Edward Wedlake Brayley from A Topographical and Historical Description of London and Middlesex
The Dutch Church – the last remaining fragment of Austin Friars
