All Hallows-by-the-Tower (or All Hallows, Barking), City of London: detail of the limewood font cover by Grinling Gibbons with cherubs cavorting among flowers and fir cones

SOURCE: George H. Birch. London churches of the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries (London: Batsford, 1896), pl. LXIV NOTES: The original church, established in 675 as part of the Saxon abbey at Barking, was built on the site of a former Roman building. It was expanded and rebuilt several times between the 11th and 15th centuries. It was badly damaged by a nearby explosion in 1649 and narrowly escaped destruction by the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was restored in the late 19th century only to be gutted by bombing during the Blitz of 1940. It was extensively restored in the 1950s and rededicated in 1957.