THE ANCIENT WARD

Langbourn is one of the 25 ancient wards of the City of London.

It is reputedly named after a buried stream in the vicinity. Not far from Magpie-Alley adjoining the church of St. Catherine Coleman in Aldgate-ward was a spring that produced a rivulet or bourn. This ran westward through Lombard-street as far as the church of St. Mary Woolnoth.

It is a small ward; a long thin area, running in a west-east direction. In days gone by Lombard Street and Fenchurch Street were the principal streets, forming the cores of the ward's West and East divisions respectively. 

The ward at present borders eight other wards (Aldgate, Bridge, Billingsgate, Candlewick, Cornhill, Lime Street, Tower and Walbrook); historically no other City ward bordered so many neighbours.

Langbourn encompasses a large area of Leadenhall Market and two historic churches: St. Mary Woolnoth and St. Edmund's. Historically, the ward also contained four other churches: St Nicholas Acons (destroyed in the Great Fire 1666), All Hallows Staining (demolished 1870), St. Dionis Backchurch (1878), and All Hallows Lombard Street (1939).