Chelsea Old Church

This church stands behind a bronze monument to Thomas More (1477–1535), the former chancellor (and now Roman Catholic saint) who lost both his property and his head for refusing to go along with Henry VIII’s plan to establish himself as supreme head of the Church of England. Original features in the church include the Tudor More Chapel. More’s body is thought to be buried somewhere within the church; his head, having been hung out on London Bridge, is now at rest a long way away in St Dunstan’s Church, Canterbury. At the western end of the south aisle don’t miss the only chained books in a London church (chained, of course, to stop anyone making off with them), including two volumes of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs dating from 1684 and the so-called Vinegar Bible (1717).