So today I went to 'The Guild Church of St Margaret Pattens', which appears to have a building society attached to it on one side, and an office block tacked onto the back. Apparently, for at least nine hundred years a church dedicated to St. Margaret of Antioch has stood in what now is Eastcheap (About 5 minutes walk from my office).
The earliest known reference is to a small wooden building in the year 1067. Later this church is referred to in mediaeval records by various names such as “St Margaret Pattens” and “St. Margaret near the Tower”.
The church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and was rebuilt at the cost of approx. £5000 between 1684 and 1687, on the original foundations.
The church was damaged again in World War 2, and again restored in 1955-56.
However, I have no idea how the place survives in the present day.
You are greeted by signs advertising Weightwatcher classes and a yoga class when you enter, but the church itself seemed desolate.
Don't get me wrong, the interior is amazing - lots of solid wood and everything built to last - but it all looks so drab and uncared for.
The pile of hymn books illustrates my point quite nicely ...
The building felt just like, well, a building. There was none of feeling you get when to enter a church, that feeling where you automatically lower your voice and try not to make too much noise with your shoes. Where you wonder if it's disrepectful to walk around with your hands in your coat pockets, or what you're supposed to do when you walk in front of the alter. It just felt like a large, cold building with some very nice old, wooden furniture.
But there was one thing I did like ...:
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