Walking the City of London Churches ep.11

City churches walking tour: St. Giles Cripplegate to St. Mary Somerset

This final episode in the City of London churches walking series starts in the heart of the Barbican at the medieval St. Giles Cripplegate. This church was originally constructed in 1394 reconstructing a Norman church built in 1090. Interestingly, there was a Saxon on the same site that the Norman church had replaced. Given that it’s built right next to the Roman wall and one of its bastions, it’s positively modern in comparison, the present church’s construction being closer in time to 2025 than it was to the building of the Roman wall. The tower was added in 1682. The interior was gutted during the Blitz but still boasts a number of busts of significant historical figures associated with the church. There are three statues of John Milton buried here in 1674, one of Cromwell who was married in the church and Daniel Defoe who was born in the Parish.
From St. Giles our walk heads down Wood Street (past the tower of St Alban featured in a previous episode) and into Gresham Street where we are greeted by the newly restored gleaming exterior of St Lawrence Jewry. Originally built in 1136 on the site of ancient synagogue (be great to learn more about this), the church perished in the Great Fire of 1666 but thankfully was one of the 51 churches that Christopher Wren was commissioned to rebuild. The rich carvings and plaster work of the interior were destroyed by bombing during the Second World War, however this revealed a mosaic of the Ascension over the altar which had been hidden by a picture. William Kent noted in his book, The Lost Treasures of London, “The vestry of St. Lawrence Jewry, more beautiful than that of any City church” was also destroyed in WW2.

City of London Churches walk - St Giles Cripplegate
St Giles Cripplegate
St Lawrence Jewry - City of London churches walk
St Lawrence Jewry

This City churches walking tour then heads down Ironmonger Lane and along Cheapside to St. Paul’s Churchyard where we find echoes of two lost churches. St. Faith’s church was subsumed by the eastward expansion of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1256. The parishioners were given a space in the Crypt of St. Paul’s to continue their worship. After the Great Fire destroyed the cathedral in 1666, St Faith’s was merged with St. Augustine’s Watling Street and that remained the case until St. Augustine’s was bombed during the Second World War with only its fine Wren tower surviving which was restored in the 1950s. Stood in the shadow of St Paul’s it’s very easy to miss St. Augustine’s (and the memory of a section of Watling Street erased from the map) and the wonderful story of Faith the Cat which you can hear in the video.

St Mary Somerset
St Mary Somerset

The final location in our walk, and indeed in the City of London Churches series, was found at the end of Lambeth Hill a short distance from St. Paul’s. The surviving tower is another legacy of Wren’s post-Great Fire rebuilding, the original church dating back to the 12th Century, but ultimately the rest of St. Mary Somerset didn’t fall to fire or bombs but to an administrative decision. The 1860 Union of Benefices Act resulted in the demolition of 26 City of London churches with the aim of using the proceeds of the sale of the land and materials to fund the building of churches in the newly expanding London suburbs. The sale of St. Mary paid for the construction of St. Mary Hoxton. The tower and its small landscaped garden remain as a fitting tribute.

Walking the City of London Churches ep.10 

Starting in Old Broad Street we go looking for the Dutch Church in Austin Friars where Vincent Van Gogh Worshipped. We then go along Throgmorton Street and admire the exterior of Drapers’ Hall and Throgmorton Avenue. We emerge behind the Bank of England and get drawn into Tokenhouse Yard, Telegraph Street, Whalebone Yard and King’s Arms Yard. Then we go inside the magnificent St. Margaret Lothbury with its fascinating relics from other City of London Churches and its association with five City Livery Companies.

Filmed July 2024

Walking the City of London Churches ep.7 

A walk through the City of London visiting some of the city’s most historic churches. Including All Hallow on the Wall, St Botolph Aldgate, St Katherine Cree, All Hallows Staining, St Olave’s Hart Street, and All Hallows by the Tower. We explore the rich history and beguiling architecture of these sacred spaces. Along the way, we’ll learn some of the fascinating stories behind these churches and discover hidden gems. Continuing the series of walking tours around the churches and ancient historic sites of the City of London we start at Bishopsgate outside Liverpool Street Station. Our route takes to All Hallows on London Wall and then we walk down Houndsditch which was once a deep ditch outside the Roman Wall. This leads us to St Botolph Aldgate where the City meets the East End. From here we walk along Aldgate High Street to Leadenhall Street and the church of St Katherine Cree with its stone Tudor tower. Crossing to Mark Lane we visit the tower of All Hallows Staining and then on to St Olave Hart street where I was fortunate to catch the end of the Sunday service. The final church on our walking tour is All Hallows by the Tower with its magnificent crypt containing a section of Roman tesserae and Anglo-Saxon stone work from a previous church on the site beside the Tower of London.

Filmed December 2022

Walking the City of London Churches ep.6 

A London walk through some of the most historic locations in the City of London

We’re back to unpick more of the City of London’s stories and discover some of its treasures. This classic London history walk includes some of the City’s most important locations as well as its centres of power. We start by going in search of a plaque marking the site of Shakespeare’s lodgings in London and this leads us to the site of St Mary Aldermanbury and the garden that marks the location of this church that was destroyed in the blitz. We next visit St Alban, Wood Street, the lonely tower all that remains of the Wren Church built after the great fire on a site that has had a church since at least the 10th Century. We cross London Wall, visit the location of St Olaf Silver Street, the Roman Wall in Noble Street, and the site of St Mary Staining. Our walking tour then takes us to the magnificent Guildhall, home of the Corporation of London, and ‘an enduring symbol of London’s past and present’. In the basement of the Guildhall Gallery I visit the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre that once occupied the site and was said to have a capacity of 6000. Moving on to Lothbury we visit the Bank of England, the first privately owned Central Bank and also the Royal Exchange and the Mansion House all situated around Bank Tube Station.

Filmed August 2022

Walking the City of London Churches ep.5  

A walk linking together a series of churches and sacred sites in the City of London

This is episode five in the City of London churches walks. Churches on this walk: St. Paul’s Cathedral, St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, St. James Garlickhithe, St. Mary Aldermary, Site of St. Mildred’s, St Peter’s Churchyard, St Mary-le-Bow, St. Mary Woolnoth. We also visit the birthplace of St Thomas Becket.

Streets: Bow Lane and Watling Street, Queen Victoria Street, Cheapside, Lombard Street, Groveland Court

Pubs: Ye Olde Watling Pub, The Pavilion End, Williamson’s Tavern

Filmed June 2022

Walking the City of London Churches ep.4  

Our walking tour starts at St Andrew Holborn before we follow Shoe Lane to Farringdon Road and Ludgate Hill where we visit St Martin Ludgate. Our next church is St Andrew by-the-Wardrobe. Crossing Queen Victoria Street we find St Benet Church. Our walk ends with what I believe to be one of the most special places in the City of London – St Swithun’s Church Garden which contains the Catrin Glyndwr memorial.

Filmed March 2022

Part of my ongoing series of walks around the Churches of the City of London

Friends of the City Churches

Walking the City of London Churches ep.3 – Fleet Street 

The incredible stories of Fleet Street

Fleet Street walking tour – one of the most famous streets in London. This continues the series on the Churches of the City of London.

Our walk starts in Clement’s Lane passing through the grounds of the London School of Economics and behind the Royal Courts of Justice. We then visit St Clement Danes Church and look for the medieval holy well. After looking at the statue of Samuel Johnson we go to Temple Bar the ancient western gate of the City of London. From here we visit St Dunstan-in-the-West with its statues of Gog and Magog and recount of the story of Brutus of Troy, Albina founding Britain and Corineus defeating the giant Gogmagog in Battle leading to Brutus becoming the first king of Britain and founding London. We also talk about the 14th Century statues of King Lud and his sons in the porch of the church. We continue along Fleet Street and go into Inner Temple and visit Temple Church, Middle Temple Hall and Fountain Court before going along Whitefriars Street to St Bride’s Church with its fantastic spire designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Our walk ends by looking for the site of Bridewell Palace first built by Henry III.

Filmed December 2021