Wednesday 14 March 2012

St Alban, Wood St EC2

I am having a bit of a love-moment for the City of London right now - not during the week when the suited and booted City folk bustle around deciding how to spend their million pound bonuses, but on the weekends when it is deserted and lovely and you can stumble across hidden gems like the lone tower of St Alban in Wood St.  Nestled in between modern buildings, all that remains of this 17th Century church is the tower, now apparently a private residence (how cool is that?).  If you believe Wikipedia, there may have been a church on this site since the 8th century but there are definitive records going back to the 10th.  As with many (in fact most) of the churches within the City of London, St Alban was destroyed completely in the Great Fire of 1666 and then, again like most City churches, was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren in the late 17th Century.  Restored in the late 19th century, the body of the church was pretty much destroyed in the Blitz in 1940 although it took until 1965 for it to be demolished.  I'm glad they left the tower though - it's  a reminder of something that has stood here for longer than any of the buildings around it and seen the London centuries come and go.  Plus it's the coolest traffic island I've ever seen.

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