Here and there scattered about Old London are a number of towers formerly of churches that have now disappeared, along with some other ruins or sites of ruins that have been made into public gardens. These landmarks happily have been left to remind us of the ancient city that once had more than 100 churches within its walls.
Try to keep an eye out for the following:
- All Hallows, Staining. The original medieval building fell down in 1671, was rebuilt, and the later church demolished in 1870 except for the tower.
- Christ Church, Newgate Street. Wren built one his most expensive churches here on the site of the chancel of the old Franciscan friary church, 1677–9. The buildings of the friary were used for Christ’s Hospital, a famous foundling school for boys (Bluecoat Boys) which continued on this site until 1902. In 1940 the church was gutted by incendiaries, but the beautiful steeple was spared and later restored by Lord Mottistone in 1960. The ruined walls and burial ground are now laid out as a garden
- St Alban, Wood Street. The church here was probably founded in Saxon times, may have been rebuilt by Inigo Jones in 1633–34, then was partly rebuilt by Wren after the Great Fire. All but the tower was removed after destruction in the bombing.
- St Augustine with St Faith’s. Wren built this church east of St Paul’s with a slender spire similar to St Martin-within-Ludgate to act as a foil to the broad dome of the cathedral. The church was destroyed in the bombing but the spire has been restored (in fibre-glass) to its original shape. The modern St Paul’s Choir School has replaced the church. St Alphage, London Wall. An early church was built against the wall itself, but the original of this tower was a fourteenth-century priory church. The chancel was rebuilt in 1777, then all but the medieval tower was demolished in 1924.
- St Dunstan’s-in-the-East. The original church on this site was dedicated in Saxon times. It was partly burned in 1666 and repaired by Wren, who built its famous steeple with a spire set on flying buttresses (crown spire’). It was rebuilt again in the nineteenth cen¬tury. Burnt out by incendiaries in 1941, the steeple and walls have been preserved and the site laid out as a public garden. The weathered Portland stone of the ruins is said to be especially beautiful in the evening.
- St Martin Orgar, Martin Lane. The first church was burned in the Great Fire but not completely destroyed. The parish was united with St Clement, Eastcheap, and the ruins patched up and used by a French Protestant congregation until demolished in 1820. The old tower stood until 185 I and then it too was pulled down. But oddly enough it was replaced by a new and loftier tower which stands today. The churchyard also remains.
- St Mary Somerset, Upper Thames Street. This Wren church was pulled down in I 871 except for the tower with its elegant crown of tall obelisks and urns. The ornaments were removed for safety during the blitz but have been carefully restored by the City Corporation.
- St Mary Aldermanbury. The site of this Wren church dedicated to the Virgin (Aldermanbury, the name of the street, means ‘court of the alderman’) has been laid out as a public garden. After the bombing the stones were numbered and shipped to the campus of Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, where the church was reconstructed as faithfully as possible to the original plan. It stands as a memorial to Winston Churchill and the wartime co-operation between the United States and Great Britain. It was here, in March 1946, that Churchill made his famous ‘Iron Curtain’ speech. St Olave, Old Jewry. The Wren church that stood here was demolished in I 887–88 except for the tower, which was converted into an entrance to offices and a house, the rectory of St Margaret Lothbury. The buildings were destroyed in World War II, exposing some medieval portions of the pre- Wren church wall. The Lower and churchyard remain.