The Temple Church is among the oldest churches in London. It was built by the Knights Templar, an order of crusading monks founded in 1118 to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land. The Templars became one of the most powerful orders in Christendom. The Temple was their headquarters in England: here were the Church, two Halls, cloisters and domestic buildings, leading in the 12th century straight down to the River Thames. The Round Church was consecrated in 1185.
Music
In 1308, the Temple Church contained ‘two pairs of organs’ and, in the vestry, ‘twenty-eight choir copes and four little copes for the choristers.’ The Temple Church Choir was founded after the Victorian restoration of the church in 1841 by Dr Edward John Hopkins. It is still considered to be one of the finest choirs in London,
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