It is said that in medieval times this church was actually attached to the old Lud Gate, through which traffic streamed westward from St Paul’s along Fleet Street and the Strand to Westminster. Its first recorded mention is 1174, and it was rebuilt once in 1437 before being destroyed in the Great Fire. Wren’s church was constructed in 1677–87. It is used today as a guild church, with special responsibility for liaison with the Metropolitan Police. It is also the chapel of the Honourable Society of the Knights of the Round Table.
The exterior of St Martin’s is not notable except for the slender spire, which Wren designed to contrast with the great dome of St Paul’s. It intercepts it perfectly if viewed from about halfway down Fleet Street. The interior was ingeniously constructed to deal with two problems, a sloping site and traffic noise from Ludgate Hill.
Wren solved both by creating an aisle on the south (upper, or street) side with a partially enclosed arcade, thus making the body of the church into a square. This minimizes the south-to-north slope and forms a noise buffer next to the street. Of the several fine original furnishings, note the churchwardens’ double chair (1690) and the white marble font (1673) encircled by a Greek palindrome (a sentence that reads equally well backwards or forwards). This one is a copy from a font in the church of St Sophia in Istanbul, and the English translation is:
‘Cleanse thy sin, not merely thy outward self.’