St Clement Danes

The Church of Scotland has been active in London since the time of James VI, King of Scots, who became King James I of England in 1603. There is some evidence that courtiers of the King who had followed him from Scotland worshipped in a chapel in the precincts of the old Whitehall Palace. This site became known as Scotland Yard and subsequently housed the original offices of the Metropolitan Police. The current building dates from 1909, but Crown Court Church has been on this site since 1719.

In 1542 Henry VIII rebuilt the church already on this site to keep plague victims from being carried through his palace grounds. At the time, this was an isolated spot 'in the fields'.

Welcome to the historic and beautiful Temple Church, built by the Knights Templar, the soldier monks who protected pilgrims to the Holy Land during the Crusades. The round church is modelled on the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. In 1608 King James I gave the whole area of the Temple to the two societies of lawyers, Inner and Middle Temple, who have maintained the church beautifully to the present day.