Dutch Church, City of London

I'd never heard of the Dutch Church in the City of London. It was whilst I was up the viewing platform on the 58th floor of Horizon 22 building and looking at my map to identify buildings, that I noticed the Dutch Church marked on the map. So I decided to have a look as it is nearby.

The church is located in Austin Friars, on the site of a 13th-century Augustinian friary of the same name.

The friary existed until it was destroyed during the London Blitz in 1940. The Augustinian order is part of the Roman Catholic church. In 1538 the friary was dissolved under the order of Thomas Cromwell. He was a supporter of the English Reformation, when the Church of England broke away from the Catholic Church. It then became the first official nonconformist chapel in England. Nonconformists were Protestant Christians who did not "conform" to the governance and usages of the state church in England. The minister was Polish-born Jan Łaski.

According to Wikipedia : "His congregation was based in Frisia, which is now divided between Germany and the Netherlands; this connection gave the church its modern name of the Dutch Church and the Dutch language is still used there for services. The rest of the church was turned into a storehouse for corn, coal and wine, with the monuments sold for £100 and the lead stripped from the roof. The choir, tower and transepts were demolished in 1600 and in 1862 a fire destroyed the rest of the church. The reconstructed building was destroyed in the Blitz during the Second World War and was rebuilt again between 1950 and 1956."

Today Austin Friars is a busy mostly pedestrian thoroughfare. The church, at No 7, is quite plain to look at from the outside, but got Grade-II listing in 1998. There is a food stall right outside the church with tables and chairs on the other side of the entrance.

Unfortunately the sun was shining on this board for the Nederlandse Kerk, which gives the times of the Sunday service - 11 am, the Minister's name and that it is open to visitors Mon - Fri. 

The main church is empty of pews, but a photo on Wikipedia shows the pews in place.

Small spiral staircase up to the organ -

This Wikipedia page says "With the founding of the church dating to 1550, it is the oldest Dutch-language Protestant church in the world, and as such is known in The Netherlands as the mother church of all Dutch reformed churches.".