St Peter Westcheap Churchyard

St Peter Westcheap was built in the 12th century and was rebuilt in the 16th century, when it was known as 'St Peter's at the Crosse in Cheape', because of the memorial cross erected there by King Edward I, in 1291. The cross was to honour Queen Eleanor and marked one of the twelve places where her body rested on the journey from Nottinghamshire to Westminster Abbey.

It became a holy shrine, adorned with religious carvings, and was consequently removed by the Puritans. Musicians often performed on the leads of the church during processions; and it was here that Queen Elizabeth I, on her procession through the City of London, was presented with a copy of the English translation of the Bible. 

Three Lord Mayors are buried in the churchyard.

The church was not rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666.

The shop on the corner, backing on to the churchyard, L & R Wooderson, was built just 21 years after the Great Fire.

Today, the churchyard is a pocket park, offering a place of quiet respite, just a stone's throw from St Paul's Cathedral. It is also home to a London Plane tree, said to be "the oldest tree" in the City of London.

Elsyng Spital Church Tower, City of London

Elsyng Spital Church Tower.

The City of London is full of churches. Some are still in use, while others are ruins. Some of these ruins have been turned into pocket gardens, where people can go to escape the bustle of the city. Others, like Elsyng Spital Church Tower, have been left as they are.

I like that places like this have been left, rather than bulldozed, now standing alongside the new office blocks which, no doubt, won't last as long.

This is all that remains of the tower of the church of the medieval hospital of Elsyng Spital. 

 

The entrance to the church was through the archway on the right.

 

London's Lost Churches

Christchurch Greyfriars Church Garden.

On my many wanders around and through the City of London, I have always been struck by the amount of churches dotted throughout. Occasionally, I have stumbled across the ruins of churches either destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666 or bombed via Zeppelin raids of World War I, or the Blitz of World War II.

Some of these ruins have been turned into pocket parks or gardens of remembrance, while others have been lost forever, with, very little to show that they were ever there.

St Mary Aldermanbury Garden.

I soon became intrigued to see if there was a complete list of churches within the City of London that were either still standing, ruined or lost to the ravages of time.