Legend has it that the first church on the site was consecrated by St Peter himself, who came down from heaven and was rowed across the Thames by a fisherman named Edric, who received a giant salmon as a reward.

More verifiable is that there was a small Benedictine monastery here by the end of the tenth century, for which Edward the Confessor built an enormous church. Nothing much remains of Edward`s church, which was consecrated on December 28, 1065, just ten days before his own death, though the ground plan is his, as is the crypt.