A church has probably been on the site of St Mary-le-Bow since Saxon times but the present building was one of the first churches to be rebuilt after the Great Fire of London by Christopher Wren. According to tradition you have to have been born within the sound of the bells of Mary-le-Bow to be considered a true Cockney.
St Stephen Walbrook is another church I visited whilst down in London for Open House last year. It’s the third church building on the site, the first was founded in Saxon times, the second was destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the third was designed by Christopher Wren in 1672.
I visited St Mary Aldermary as part of Open House London though it’s been on my to do list for a while. There’s probably been a church on this site for over 900 years with the name Aldermary meaning “older Mary”, suggesting it was the first local church dedicated to Mary and therefore the oldest such church in the City. The Great Fire in 1666 destroyed the original church, so its current building was given a more Gothic rebuild by Christopher Wren.
I’d seen some pictures of All Saints Margaret online and decided that it was somewhere that I wanted to see for myself. In fact this Victorian church, tucked away down a side street not far from Oxford Circus was even more breathtaking than I’d imagined.
Another February, another Light Night. This is always a good event to go to every year and as ever the city centre was packed with people from all ages. For this year as well the event was spread over both the Friday and the Saturday night, though I only made it out on the Friday. There’s never enough time to see everything so we did a loop from Trinity Square to listen to some of the choirs, round through Market Square to the very impressive art works projected onto the Council House, over to St Mary’s Church in the Lace Market and then up to Nottingham Contemporary art gallery. A few of my favourite light displays are below.
On a recent trip to London I had some hours to kill and decided to take a look at St Patrick’s Catholic Church, Soho Square.
St James’ Church, Piccadilly is one of the churches designed and built by Christopher Wren, the foundation stone being laid on 3 April 1676. It was paid for by the Earl of St Albans who owned the land and probably selected Wren personally for the job.
After visiting St Andrew Undershaft I moved on to the nearby St Helen’s Bishopsgate. There was already a tour in progress when I arrived and as I’d already diverted from my original plan by some hours I decided to just wander around on my own taking photos.
St Andrew Undershaft was one of many churches I visited during Open House London. I only spotted it as I was heading towards Leadenhall Market (to feature in a later post) thanks to the sign they’d put out on the pavement – the church is tucked away among many of the City’s skyscrapers.
There’s been a church on this site since at least 1125, but the present church dates from 1744 and is by George Dance the Elder (he also built Mansion House, the official home of the Lord Mayor of London). The interior of the church, which really took my breath away, was remodelled by John Francis Bently (who also designed Westminster Cathedral).
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