Statute Law Repeals - Law Commission - Ministry of Justice

St Bride Church Act (1792)/ St Bride’s Church, City Act (1796)
6.20 St Bride’s in Fleet Street was among several City churches to be rebuilt by Sir
Christopher Wren following the Great Fire of 1666. 36 The 1792 Act 37 was passed
partly to raise sufficient money to carry out repairs and improvements to the
church, and partly to raise money to provide a workhouse for the parish poor. 38
The Act authorised the levying of rates and the sale of annuities to meet the cost
of the church repairs and the cost of building the workhouse. The total cost
involved was greater than expected as evidenced by the preamble to the 1796
Act 39 which recorded that more money was needed to complete the works to the
church and the workhouse. Accordingly the 1796 Act authorised the raising of a
further sum of £6000 to complete these works. Both the 1792 and the 1796 Acts
became obsolete when the church repair and workhouse building works were
completed and the fund-raising provisions ceased to be invoked. Both Acts may
now be repealed.
St Martin Outwich Church, City Act (1796)
6.21 St Martin Outwich 40 was a medieval parish church in the City of London, on the
corner of Threadneedle Street and Bishopsgate. The preamble to the 1796 Act 41
recorded that the church was in so decayed and ruinous a condition that “it is
become dangerous for the Inhabitants of the said Parish to attend Divine Service
therein”. Accordingly the Act authorised the demolition and rebuilding of the
church, the costs to be met by the levy of rates and the sale of annuities. The
rebuilding works were duly completed in or around 1798. However, falling
congregations and pressure to release land for road-widening resulted in the
church being demolished in 1874 and the parish being combined with St Helen
Bishopsgate. The fund-raising provisions of the 1796 Act have long ceased to be
operable with the result that the Act as a whole no longer serves any useful
purpose.
36 St Bride’s was further restored following extensive war damage in 1940.
37 32 Geo.3 c.64.
38 Most parishes (or unions of parishes) of the day funded at least one workhouse in their
area, and the parish of St Bride was no exception. Indeed a workhouse had existed in the
parish as early as the 1720s.
39 36 Geo.3 c.35.
40 th
The church was dedicated to St Martin, the 4 century Bishop of Tours. Outwich derived
from the family name of Oteswich.
41 36 Geo.3 c.103.
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