Wren Watching: Wren Churches Walk in the City of London

In the C17 the City of London rose like a phoenix from the ashes of the Great Fire and one man rose with it – Christopher Wren.

In 1670, whilst waiting for approval on a design for St Paul’s Cathedral, Wren was appointed to oversee the rebuilding of 51 of the 87 parish churches destroyed by the flames of 1666.

The coming of the railways, Victorian restructuring, two world wars, the IRA and mid C20 development have robbed us of some of those churches. But there are still plenty to visit and enjoy, and City of London Guides and Lecturers Alexandra Epps and Jill Finch will introduce you to three of them on their Square Mile Church Crawl.

The first church we will visit is St Lawrence Jewry next Guildhall, the official church of the Corporation of the City of London. The church, by Wren, was built between 1671 and 1680 on the site of a much earlier structure. It was destroyed in 1940 and restored by Cecil Brown in the 1950s. The interior was designed to accommodate Guildhall ceremonies. It is therefore exceptionally spacious and possesses sumptuous C20 fittings, such as the carved wooden pulpit, reredos and north screen, reflecting one aspect of Wren’s original interior. The stained glass (1959-1960) is by Christopher Webb.

St Mary le Bow will be the next stop on the tour. Designed by Wren (1670-1680), the outer walls of the church survived World War II, but the interior was reconstructed by Laurence King in the 1950s. The C20 fittings include stained glass (1964) by John Hayward. Bradley and Pevsner describe the steeple as the ‘glory’ of this church and the entrances to the tower, with large Tuscan columns and a triglyph frieze, are reminiscent of Wren’s work at Trinity College Library, Cambridge. The building stands above an ‘exceptionally important’ medieval crypt built by Lanfranc of Canterbury.

We will end the tour at St Mary Aldermary. Possibly the oldest church in the City dedicated to the Virgin Mary, it is ‘one of the most important late C17 Gothic’ churches in England. Wren’s office oversaw its rebuilding after the Great Fire and the great medieval church that originally stood on the site provided much of the material used in the C17 structure. Unusually for a parish church, the interior boasts fine plaster fan-vaults on the ceilings of the nave and aisles. The fittings are C19 and C20, including stained glass by Lawrence Lee and John Crawford.

During the tour Jill will outline the history of the churches, Wren’s brief for their rebuilding after the Fire, and their fate after World War Two.

Alexandra will outline the history of stained glass in the City, unpick the iconography and stained glass stories embedded within the post-war windows and discuss each stained glass artist’s unique visual language.

Important information about the tour

NB The churches listed may be subject to change. If this is the case we will endeavour to inform all those attending before the event.

• We are meeting from 10.45am for a prompt 11am start. The meeting point is outside the Guildhall Art Gallery in Guildhall Yard (EC2V 5AE).
• The walk should take a maximum of 2 hours and finish in an area with several pubs and restaurants nearby for lunch.
• We will be using headsets to ensure that everyone will be able to hear clearly inside the churches and to avoid the risk of disturbing any worshippers.

The image shows a detail of the Wren Window in St Lawrence Jewry © Frances Cook

Tickets

£28 for students (limited availability)

£30 for members

£35 for non-members