St Nicholas Cole Abbey

The church is dedicated to the 4th century St Nicholas of Myra. The name "Cole Abbey" is derived from "coldharbour", a medieval word for a traveller's shelter or shelter from the cold. The church was never an abbey.

Recorded from the twelfth century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. The church suffered substantial bomb damage from German bombs during the London Blitz in the Second World War and was reconstructed by Arthur Bailey in 1961–2.