(ST.) THOMAS CHAPEL, LONDON BRIDGE

   Erected over the centre pier of the first stone bridge on the east side, 1176-1209.

   "Capella beati Thomae Martyris super Pontem," 31 Ed. I., in list of London benefices in Lib. Cust. I. 228.

   Peter the chaplain of Colechurch, who commenced the bridge but died before its completion, was buried in the Chapel in 1205.

   It had an entrance from the river as well as from the street and was reached by a winding staircase. It had a groined roof springing from clustered pillars (Gent. Mag. Lib. XV. p.303). It was 60 ft. long, 20 ft. wide and 110 ft. high, with an undereroft or vaulted crypt. Prior to its demolition in 1757-8, it had been used for some time as a warehouse and dwelling-house (ib.301).

   In 1433 a question arose as to the oblations, etc., made in the Chapel, and it was agreed that they should all be received by the Chaplain and that he should pay out of them a certain sum yearly to the Rector of St. Magnus, in whose parish the Chapel was situated (Newcourt, I. 396).

   The Chapel was dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket of Canterbury.

   There seems no reason to doubt that the chapel was dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury from its earliest days, for the chapel and fraternity were founded only about 30 years after his death, and his memory was at that time and for many generations held in the most profound veneration by the citizens of London. Roger of Wendover tells us how in 1190, when the King's fleet on its voyage to Lisbon was in danger of shipwreck, the blessed martyr Thomas of Canterbury appeared to three different persons on board the ship of the Londoners to comfort them, as though the citizens were regarded as especially under his protection (II. p.96).

   It is worthy of note that the hospital of St. Thomas at Southwark was founded only a few years later than the chapel on London Bridge, and the chapel of St. Thomas of Acres some years previously by Becket's sister.