St Lawrence Jewry, City of London

Missable from the street – you’d easily wander past this one. But tucked away behind the buzz of the City, the people and their pints and their suits, stands a huge expanse of courtyard. Empty and flat, the pale stone transports us to southern Europe; it feels almost Milanese. Yet the roughness of the church bricks brings in that earthy British tone. There the church stands, spire up into the sky on this strange island of peace in inner London.

St Lawrence Jewry has a very familiar style – very much a main block with a sloping roof, with a tower about double the height, also rectangular, on one end. Unfortunately I was unable to go inside this church to examine the structure in more detail.

The church was actually rebuilt after extensive damage during the Blitz, but the architect Cecil Brown stuck to Wren’s initial design.

On the other side of the courtyard stands another church-like building, which is actually Guildhall, the HQ for the City of London Corporation.