All Hallows-by-the-Tower stands on Byward Street in the City of London, overlooking the Tower of London. It is traditionally dated to AD 675, though the evidence is slight. The church was owned by Barking Abbey, and the Domesday Book of 1086 records twenty-eight houses and half a church in London. The outer walls are fifteenth century, and the church mixes Anglo-Saxon, Norman, and thirteenth- and fifteenth-century elements.
A gunpowder explosion in 1650 destroyed the west tower, and it was rebuilt in 1658. The church survived the Great Fire of 1666. It was gutted in the Blitz and rededicated in 1957.
Its features include an Anglo-Saxon arch built of reused Roman materials, found in 1940, and a font cover carved by Grinling Gibbons in 1682. A museum in the crypt displays a Roman pavement. The church is a Grade I listed building.
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