The parishioners had been allowed to worship at an altar in the Priory church, but this being inconvenient, St. Katherine’s was built through the agency of Richard de Gravesend, Bishop of London, 1280-1303. It was rebuilt in 1628-1630, possibly after the design of Inigo Jones. The steeple, which was built in the early sixteenth century, is still standing. The church was consecrated by Laud in 1631. In 1874 the parish of St. James’s, Duke’s Place, was annexed. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1436. The patronage of which was in the hands of the Prior and Canons of Holy Trinity, London. Henry VIII. seized it in 1540, and soon after granted it to Sir Thomas Audley, who gave it, by his will dated April 19, 1544, to the Master and Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge, in whose successors it continued. Houseling people in 1548 were 542. The church is a mixture of the Gothic and classical styles. It contains two narrow aisles separated from the nave by Corinthian columns and round arches, above which is a clerestory. The roof is groined, and the arms of the City and several City Companies are displayed on it. The building is 94 feet long, 51 feet broad, and 37 feet high. It is larger than the original church, of which the sole relic now existing is a pillar at the south-west, less than three feet above ground, owing to the higher level of the new church. The stone steeple rises at the west and consists of a tower surmounted by a Tuscan colonnade with a cupola and vane; its total height is 75 feet. A chantry was founded here at the Altar of St. Michael. The church is not rich in historical monuments. It contains, however, the tomb of Nicholas Throckmorton, Chief Butler of England and intimate friend of Lady Jane Grey and Queen Elizabeth. Tradition said that Hans Holbein was buried here, but there is no evidence for it except that he died in the vicinity. There is a brass in the floor in front of the communion table, commemorating Sir John Gayer, Lord Mayor in 1646 and staunch adherent of Charles I., for which he suffered imprisonment. At the west end there is a bas-relief to Samuel Thorpe (died 1791): this is only interesting as being the work of the elder Bacon. Sir John Gayer bequeathed £200 for charitable purposes, amongst them a fee for a sermon to be preached on October 16 annually, and though the charity is now diverted, yet the “Lion sermon,” in commemoration of the donor’s delivery from a lion in Arabia, is still kept up. There was a charity school at the end of Cree Church Lane, in which forty boys were clothed and taught, by subscriptions from the inhabitants of the ward. Roger Maynwaring (1590-1653), Bishop of St. David’s, was a perpetual curate here; also Nicholas Brady (1659-1726), joint author of Tate and Brady’s version of the Psalter.