The City churches rebuilt by Christopher Wren after the Great Fire. Their congregations have shrunk to single figures, but their churchwardens remain - people whose decades of stewardship hold these buildings in living use.
After the Great Fire of 1666, Christopher Wren rebuilt fifty-one churches in the City of London. Three and a half centuries later, the City's residential population has all but vanished, replaced by offices and commuters who arrive at 8am and leave at 6pm. The churches remain, but their congregations have shrunk to single figures - sometimes fewer. What keeps these buildings in use as places of worship rather than event venues or office space is the commitment of individual churchwardens.
The Archive documents the churchwardens whose personal stewardship holds these buildings in their original purpose. A warden at St Mary Abchurch has served for over two decades. The congregation might number five on a good Sunday. She opens the church, maintains the registers, organises the flower rota, and ensures that a building Wren designed as a parish church continues to function as one. Her departure would not close the building - but it would end it as a living church. That distinction is what the Archive exists to record.
One of the last active churchwardens in the City of London - keeping a Wren church alive in a parish with almost no parishioners.