Wren’s Churches
20 February, 2025 – 9:00 amI had the privilege of a tour around some of Sir Christopher Wren’s Churches in May 2024.
Back in 2015, I was made a Yeoman mason of the Worshipful Company of Masons . After my post detailing my work at at the Founder’s hall, I had commented that I would love to visit St Paul’s Cathedral. You can imagine how thrilled I was when the past master who had nominated me, offered to take me on a tour to look at the magnificent and iconic architecture in the City of London.
We started at Monument, erected to commemorate the Great Fire of London, exquisite carving depicting the events. Click the link which takes you to the website detailing the history behind this wonderful carving.
In short the frieze is a description in stone, Lady London in the bottom left hand corner is slumped on the crumbling London with the Dragon, the right side depicts the rebuilding of London with Charles II in the centre of the group.
There are three panels around the base of the column. My curious mind noticed that there had been something else carved at the bottom and had been altered; ” but Popish frenzy, which wrought such horrors, is not yet quenched” It was added in 1681, and later removed in 1830.
From here we moved onto a church, tucked away behind Cannon Street. St Mary Abchurch had a beautifully carved Marble font. The Alter Screen was carved by Grinling Gibbons and was completed in 1686.
St Mary Aldermary has the most incredible plaster vaulted ceiling.
St Mary Le bow is the home of London’s Bow bells, but what caught my eye was the Norwegian memorial, for those in the resistance against the Nazis, unfortunately I couldn’t get any closer.
After the Great fire, some churches were amalgamated, The Church of St Vedast-Alias-Foster has a wonderful courtyard garden, there was a service in the Church, so we took a few moments to appreciate the treasures that had been unearthed as they rebuilt London.
The Roman Mosaic wasn’t an unexpected find given the history of this area, but a cuniform tablet was an oddity. I particularly like the Jacob Epstein sculpture, obviously a much later addition to the courtyard.
Bill showed me a modern addition to the streets of London, sponsored by the Mason’s Livery company. An interesting stone bench, made of Roach Bed limestone from Portland. The holes are where sea creatures were when the sediment was collecting, but as they decayed they didn’t fossilise and left voids.
As we moved through London, we are now by St Paul’s Cathedral, but we stop to marvel at the wonderful Temple Bar. There used to be 8 bars guarding the entrance to the city of London, and they would have been just posts with bars across them, in Medieval times they would have been more substantial. The original Temple Bar stood at the junction of Fleet street and the Strand, near where the Lawyers had their offices.
Obviously over time, they would have fallen into disrepair and the Great fire of London destroyed them.
In the 17thC Charles II allegedly commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to design this gate, there is no hard proof, but his son had the original drawings.
It has been moved several times, and was put in this location in the early 2000’s, it was unveiled in November 2004.
If you would like to read a more in depth history, please visit this History of Temple Bar | Temple Bar Gateway
My next post will look at the magnificent St Paul’s Cathedral.
