We tried out another City of London walk today, “Finsbury Circus to Tower Hill”, which we found here. This one is a little shorter than the walk we took a while ago and takes in fewer gardens, but we started off somewhere that wouldn’t look out of place as an ‘on location’ spot for filming ‘Ashes to Ashes‘; the suspended gardens next to St Alphage House, which sit on top of offices right in front of the Barbican and which feature the ‘Minotaur’ by Michael Ayrton. As per usual for our Sunday strolls, we were virtually alone here – there was hardly a soul in sight anywhere, and frustratingly not one of the coffee shops in the area was open either…
We did have a look through the railings of the little park in the middle of Finsbury Circus, which dates back to 1812, but it was closed (only open at the weekends from April apparently) and from all of the vans parked outside I’m guessing that they were filming something inside. The park has an old-fashioned bowling green and a bandstand, so I imagine we’ll be seeing a new period drama with everyone wearing tweed and plus fours quite soon then…
We had more success as we moved towards Bishopsgate though, where we found the beautiful gardens of St Botolph Without Bishopsgate, a church that dates from 1729. One of the most curious facts about St Botolph’s is that unlike most of its contemporaries in London it only suffered one broken window throughout the Blitz. However, it would later find itself nearly condemned due to the severe damage it sustained as a result of the IRA’s Bishopsgate Bomb in April 1993. You can see more pictures of the now-restored church and its gardens in the album here.
After walking on for a while we came across Jubilee Gardens, which had a makeover a few years ago but again were established in the 1970s like the gardens near the Barbican. The gates were barred here too unfortunately (what is it with the City not allowing weekend sightseers to sit down on park benches?). There were some lovely little churches gathered around the imposing Swiss Re Tower to make up for it though (the tower is one of Norman Foster’s recent projects and stands at 30 St Mary Axe, and has the colloquial name of the ‘Gherkin), one of them being St Helen’s Church, which does a mean line in mischevious-looking gargoyles on its roof. For some strange reason you won’t find this particular church on the walking tour, but it’s easy to spot as it sits almost opposite 30 St Mary Axe. One particular mystery that I’d appreciate some help in solving is what the riddles carved into the benches in front of the Gherkin mean – they’re rather strange. Does anyone have any ideas?
We actually finished our walk soon afterwards, at Seething Lane Gardens, which featured in the walk I blogged about in January here. The gardens were looking pretty unloved and uncared for back then, but now the place is finally bursting into life. In particular they contain a few magnificent magnolia trees, which I’m sure Samuel Pepys is happy about…
From City Walk Mar… |