UC Riverside

This dissertation examines the reconstruction of the fifty-one parish churches in the city of London after the Great Fire of 1666. It is not primarily focused on the architectural elements of the rebuilt churches or the role played by Sir Christopher Wren, Surveyor of the King's Works, in their reconstruction. Instead this dissertation explores the reconstruction of London's parish churches as an effort by neighborhood communities to recover after an unprecedented disaster. The parish church was not simply a physical manifestation of local identity or a focus for neighborhood pride. These churches transcended their most basic function as a site for religious worship - they served as the central location for myriad political, economic and social functions essential to a parish community. Given the centrality of a church to nearly every aspect of life in a city parish, it is unsurprising how aggressively London's parishes attempted to direct the reconstruction of their churches and the reconstitution of their parish communities - through both legal and extra-legal means. This struggle to preserve these centuries-old urban communities was particularity important for those parishes whose churches were eliminated after the fire - a loss that could leave these now homeless parishes at the mercy of less than accommodating neighbors. Ultimately this dissertation will reveal how active most Londoners were in the recovery of the city after the Great Fire, as well as how central the parish community was to the early modern English, even in a city as diverse, dynamic, and multifaceted as Restoration London.