Opposite Warwick Lane is the first block of the General Post Office, the buildings of which adjoin Christ Church, built by Wren in 1687 (steeple added in 1704) on part of the site of the great church of the Grey Friars, destroyed in the fire of 1666. The church (open 12-3;, at other times, ring at the Vestry House in the porch) is entered from Christ Church Passage. The present arrangement of the interior dates from 1896. The Purbeck pavement in the chancel and a memorial slab by the door in the east wall are the only relics of the monastic church, in which four English queens were buried. The carved wooden pulpit is by Grinling Gibbons, and the marble font is generally ascribed to the same artist. The six carved panels of Spanish oak on the choir-stalls are in the Spanish style of the 16th century, but their popular connection with the Armada seems mythical. Richard Baxter (died 1691), author of �The Saints� Everlasting Rest,� and Lawrence Sheriff (died 1567), founder of Rugby School, are buried in Christ Church, and in the porch are memorials from Christ's Hospital.
The �Spital Sermon�, on Wednesday after Easter week, is attended by the Governors of the five royal and ancient hospitals (St. Bartholomew's, Christ's, St. Thomas's, Bridewell, and Bethlem), as well as by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in state, this being one of the four churches in which civic ceremonials take place. On St. Matthew's Day (September 21st) the Bluecoat Boys attend service here, and afterwards visit the Mansion House, where each �Grecian� (i.e. the top form) receives a guinea from the Lord Mayor, each Junior �Grecian� 10/, and the other boys sums ranging from 2/6 to 6d. The quaint Tudor costume of the boys is interesting: blue gown, yellow stockings, leathern girdle, and �bands.� It was in Christ Church, on the general Day of Thanksgiving (June 7th, 1649), that Oliver Cromwell, Fairfax, and the House of Commons, and other representatives of the new order, �were fitted with a double sermon.'
To the north of the church formerly stood CHRIST'S HOSPITAL, the famous �Blue Coat School,� founded by Edward VI. in 1552, on the site of a 13th century House of the Grey Friars. In 1902, however, the school was removed to the country (near Horsham, in Sussex), and its site is now occupied by the new buildings of the General Post Office and St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Among the distinguished men educated here were Campion, Camden, Stillingfleet, Middleton, Dyer, Charles Lamb (who devoted two of the most charming of his essays to his old school), Coleridge, Leigh Hunt, Sir Louis Cavagnari, and Sir Henry Maine.
