The centre of old London, the “square mile” of the City, may seem like it’s mostly banks and huge office blocks these days, but there are also dozens of churches and parks crammed in among the mirrored buildings. There’s even one place that’s both a church and a park. The utterly delightful St Dunstan-in-the-East is a collection of walls and arches and gravestones left over from a bombed-out church, and inside the remains there’s arguably the most charming park in the City: branches poking through empty windows, creepers wrapped around decaying arches, moss creeping up what used to be a church tower.
(Picture by Homemade.)
A church has been standing at St Dunstan-in-the-East, in varying states of decay, since 1100. It was damaged during the Fire of London, but its steeple was redesigned by Christopher Wren, who also designed the much more famous (but no more beautiful) St Paul’s Cathedral just down the road, and it continued to be used (and occasionally rebuilt) for another few hundred years.
During World War II, however, the church was badly damaged during the Blitz, and it stayed that way until the 1970s, when it was reopened as a garden. Nowadays, the steeple remains, towering above the rest of the garden, but only the north and south walls of the rest of the church are still standing. Instead of pews and an altar, there are benches and low walls, sunlight through thick green leaves, flowers, thick lichen, small tropical palms.
Few church ceremonies are held there nowadays: it’s used almost exclusively as a public park. But with so many other churches in the area, London can afford to lose one. The garden is open from dawn till dusk, and it’s often empty or almost empty — which isn’t really surprising, considering that it’s quite out-of-the-way. You can find it by going down Idol Lane (off Great Tower Street), or by following signs up St Dunstan’s Hill from Lower Thames Street. The pedestrian crossings around tend to make you want to wait before they let you cross the road, but it’s worth it, whether you want somewhere to sit with a picnic lunch, or to lie about and read, or take photographs, or just relax.
St Dunstan in the East: St Dunstan’s Hill, daily: dawn to dusk. Free.
