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 A HISTORY OF LONDON which was approved after certain alterations had been made.' But the City was not satisfied, and in the winter of 1669 the Common Council called meetings of parishioners, formed a committee, and consulted the bishop on the drafting of a second Bill.^ This Act, passed in 1670, enacted that fifty- one City parish churches should be rebuilt, and that the remaining fifty-eight parishes should be annexed to them for ecclesiastical purposes only, each parish retaining its distinct churchwardens and officers, and for the administra- tion of the Act appointed a commission, consisting of the archbishop, bishop, and lord mayor.* Before it had been decided which churches should be rebuilt the popula- tion began to return, making some provision for divine service and the housing of the vestries needful. The commissioners therefore, on 7 October 1 670, decided to build ten tabernacles or ' sheds,' ' and the arrangement proved so satisfactory that between 1670 and 1686 tabernacles were built in twenty other parishes.^" For the erection of these tabernacles part of the coal-tax money was used, ^1,500 being voted on 10 October 1670 for the first ten temporary churches ; the estimated cost throughout was ^150 each, the money being advanced on the parishioners depositing ^Cs^o in the common stock. The actual cost frequently exceeded ^i 50, and the tabernacles at St. Anne's Blackfriars, St. Mildred's Bread Street, and St. Alban's Wood Street, each cost over ^200." At St. Michael's Wood Street the old church walls with a temporary roof formed the tabernacle, and the old churches were also used at St. Mary Magdalen's Old Fish Street and St. Mildred's Bread Street, where the work had to be abandoned as the walls were unsafe ; but the tabernacles were usually erected in the churchyard ; at St. Michael's Queenhithe the work was delayed owing to the piles of material and sheds which ' the scandalous demeanour ' of the churchwardens permitted to en- cumber the ground. ^^ To allow the church of the annexed parish to be re- built tabernacles were erected on the sites of several churches.''^ The buildings themselves, though made ' of cheape materials and the least workmanship,' were built of brick and wood, tiled, and paved. Being intended only for temporary use they needed a good many repairs between 1677 and 1680, but the tabernacle of St. Anne's Blackfriars was enlarged in 1684—5, ^^^ ^^^ ^^^t end of that of Allhallows Lombard Street was extended in 1685—6;" the " Bodl. Lib. Tanner MS. 142, fol. 37-42. ' Rec. Corp. Journ.xlvi,fol. 1323 ; Letter Bk. XX, fol. 1 1, 1 9^, 25. 'Stat. 22 Chas. II, cap. n. ' D. and C. St. Paul's, W.E. 10, fol. 9. They were built in the parishes of St. Michael Queenhithe, St. Bride, Allh.illows the Great, St. Michael Crooiced Lane, Christ Church, St. Alban Wood Street, St. Margaret Lothbury, St. Anne and St. Agnes, St. Margaret New Fish Street, and St. Mary Magdalen New Fish Street. Of the tabernacle of St. Bride's no accounts appear to exist. '° These were St. Martin Orgar, St. John the Baptist, St. Pancras Soper Lane, St. Mary Aldermary, St. Stephen Coleman Street, St. Mildred Bread Street, St. Michael Wood Street, St. Matthew Friday Street, St. Mary Somerset, Allhallows Bread Street, Allhallows Lombard Street, St. Martin Ludgate, St. Peter Corn- hill, St. Leonard Eastcheap, St. Gabriel Fenchurch Street, St. Martin Vintry, St. Austin (D. and C. St. Paul's, W.E. 38, fol. 20), St. Anne Blackfriars (ibid. W.E. 3, 19), St. Swithin (ibid. W.E. 19), and St. Mary Abchurch (ibid. W.E. 38, fol. 20). " Ibid. W.E. 10, fol. 9, 12, &c. ; W.E. 32 ; W.E. 38. " Ibid. W.E. 10, fol. 10, 12, 15, 31 ; W.E. 22 (20 Oct. 1670). "* St. Michael Crooked Lane, St. Martin Orgar, St. John the Baptist (ibid. W.E. 32), St. Pancras Soper Lane (ibid. W.E. 10 ; 29 June 1672), St. Benet Gracechurch (ibid. W.E. 35, fol. 20), St. Margaret Pattens (ibid. W.E. 10 ; 26 May 1677), St. Peter Paul's Wharf (ibid. W.E. 2, 19), and St. Thomas the Apostle (ibid. W.E. 19 ; W.E. 2, fol. ^passim; W.E. 34). " Ibid. W.E. 42 ; W.E. 10, fol. 9 ; W.E. 19 (8 July 1685, 4 Feb. 1686). 340