St Bartholomew the Great

Church in Smithfield, London, relic of the priory of Augustinian canons founded by Rahere in 1123. The church was not fully completed until the early 13th century. At the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the first half of the 16th century most of the priory buildings were pulled down; the choir was reserved for parish use, and the rest of the buildings were sold. Later the church itself was put to entirely secular uses. Since 1863 much restoration has been carried out and surviving buildings recovered from private hands.

Rahere began building the priory soon after the hospital of the same name, and at his death the remarkable Norman apsidal choir was nearly complete. The site of the original nave has for long been the churchyard, and the present entrance to the church, a 13th-century doorway over which a timber-framed building was erected around 1595, was the entrance to the south aisle. The tower was built in the early 17th century. The tomb of Rahere in the sanctuary has a very old effigy (possibly 13th century) surmounted by an early 16th-century canopy.

The painter William Hogarth was baptised (1697) in the 15th-century font.