My new favourite place in London ...

A few years I ago I stayed at the Tower Hotel (Next to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge) through work, and discovered a ruined church on my walk to work the following morning - Yesterday I thought I'd go and find it again, and find it I did.

St Dunstan-in-the-East was built about 1100. It was severely damaged in the Great Fire of London in 1666. Rather than being completely rebuilt, the damaged church was patched up between 1668 and 1671. A steeple, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, was added 30 years later. This was unusual in that Wren designed it in the Gothic style, to match the old church.
By the early 19th century the church was in a very poor state; and it was rebuilt between 1817 and 1821 by David Laing, with assistance by William Tite. Wren's steeple was retained in the new building. The church was severely damaged in the Blitz of 1941 (By the 'enemies of the King'), during the Second World War. In the re-organisation of the Anglican Church in London following the War it was decided not to rebuild St Dunstan's, and in 1967 the City of London Corporation decided to turn the ruins of the church into a public garden. This was opened in 1971.

What was the interior of the church is now a garden, with a small fountain and plenty of seating. The walls are going green with age, and trees, vines, and the like have been allowed to grow over them (But in a tasteful manner!).

It reminds me of a scene from the old 70's film 'Logan's Run', where Logan escapes the sealed city he and the population of Earth live in, and makes it out to the 'real' world - there he finds a heavily beared Peter Ustinov and the ruins of the Capitol Building in Washington DC. (Or for the younger elements, think of that film with Will Smith living in New York 3 years after the majority of the Earth's population was either wiped out by a virus or turned in zombies - same sort of thing). The way nature has been allowed to reclaim the building (Within health and safety guidelines) is quite cool, and a nice place to escape to at lunchtime.

Incidentally, after the unsavory incident with Andy and his copyright usage over his blog name, I got in touch with the actress Kirstan Dunst to ensure I could blog about St Dunstan's as the name is vaguely similar to hers. Apparently I'm to 'Bring IT on' ... So I've brung it ..