This was our last full day in London and our main plan for the day was to catch up with Ellie at Spitalfields Market
Christ Church Spitalfields
Christ Church Spitalfields was built 1714-29 & was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, who was a leading Baroque Architect in England he worked with Christopher Wren. Originally built to meet the growing population of London, which still had a shortfall of churches after the Great Fire.
Marnie justifiably was reaching peak-church decided to skip this one.
The area at the time was dominated by French Huguenots expats, who had fled France after it got all a bit un-inclusive, in the slightly murderous kind of way. One theory is, by having a whoopingly big Anglican church it would remind Johnnie-foreigner who was in charge.
Spitalfields Markets
Spitalfields Markets is literally across the road from the church.
LiterallyThere has been a market here for 350 years; up to 1991 it was still a major fruit & vegetable market. It’s less fruit & vege now, and more knick-knacks & eateries. There was some crackingly good gluten free fish & chips.Us & Ellie!Posing for our social media followers
Leaving the markets and now happily full, we headed back to town to check out one of Marnie’s discoveries Mango. Not the fruit but the clothing store.
St Andrew under-shaft and the GherkinSt Paul’s by Mango
St Peter upon Cornhill
This has to have one of the wackier names, but is named after an old suburb of the same name.
Another Wren church, the original burnt down in the Great Fire.The church is built over the original Roman Forum, and no one is quite sure whether the original church was dated to the post-Roman or Medieval eras.
St Mary Le Bow
This another post-Great Fire church by Wren built in 1670-80. There has been a church here since 1080. It is most famous for its bells, originally anyone born in earshot of the bells could call themselves cockneys.
It’s also to the back of Mango. It was heavily damaged during the Blitz.
All Hallows by the Tower
All Hallows by the Tower, unsurprisingly right by the Tower of London, and is thought to be one of oldest churches in London dating to around 675AD.
It survived the Great Fire thanks to William Penn, who used explosives to make a fire break. His son imaginatively named William Penn founded Pennsylvania. Survived the Great Fire but was badly damaged in the BlitzOld stuff. A bit of Roman road discovered while restoring the church after the war.More old stuff. A bit of an old Anglo-Saxon cross
MM4.Travel 
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