St Stephen Walbrook
This morning I left the house in bright sunshine. A bit later as I emerged from Bank station, it was tipping down. No coat, no hat, no brolly. I whizzed past St Mary Woolnoth in Lombard Street, a pretty little Hawksmoor Church which I had seen very recently (more on this tomorrow!), dashed past Mansion House, hung a left, and took shelter in St Stephen Walbrook, a church I had not visited but which was high on my list. (warning if you’re browsing at work: their home page has a chanting monks soundtrack).
It did not disappoint. Like many Wren churches, St Stephen Walbrook has Tardis qualities, that is to say much bigger inside than it appears from without. In fact, from outside it is as plain as can be. But the interior is quite beautiful, simply a Wren masterpiece. The Henry Moore lump in the middle was far less jarring than I had expected, sitting there like a massive piece of brie (actually travertine by the looks of it, but guessing). I’ll let the pictures take over.
We passed that way on May 7th but the church was closed and we only had a glimpse over the gate of the mosaic at the entrance. There is a Starbuck’s stuck to one end of the church, possibly in part of the building.
That whole area is interesting and you encounters all sorts of traces of the past in the neighbouring streets, including two churches – St Mary’s Woolchurch Haw and St John the Baptist Upon Walbrook – that were destroyed in the Great Fire and never rebuilt though human remains from the latter’s graveyard are apparently buried in a special crypt at Canon Street tube station!