On the same day I visited the Monument to the Great Fire of London I walked a little further down the road until I came to St Dunstan in the East, a Church of England church built around 1100 that was badly damaged in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
Rather than completely rebuild the church it was decided to patch it up until Christopher Wren designed a steeple which you can see in the picture below. The church gradually fell into decline though and it was fully rebuilt, aside from Wren’s tower, in the 1800s.
During the Blitz in 1941 it was completely gutted and left as ruins, although once again Wren’s tower survived intact.
Deciding not to do any further rebuilding after this the church authorities left the ruins as they were until 1967 when the City of London Corporation decided to turn the ruins into what are some quite lovely gardens which opened to the public in 1971.
Nice and cool in the shade of a hot summer day the gardens are well maintained with plenty of benches and a small water feature, as well as bird feeders which were attracting plenty of interest when I was there.
Now a Grade I listed building this is a really lovely space that is worth taking a look at, especially if you want to take a moment to escape the nearby crowds.
You can find more of my photos here.
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