Living in London

Today we visited the church of St. Dunstan-in-the-East. This charming and serene garden-inside-a-church is wonderful. A church was originally built here in 1382. 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. It has a beautiful and unusual design, with a spire that is supported by four buttresses.  

Sir Christopher Wren always believed that the flying buttresses and four pillars that supported the steeple made it one of his strongest creations. The combination of beauty and strength in this gothic tower made it one of his personal favourites. Someone once hurried to tell Wren that a hurricane had injured all his steeples. 'Not St. Dunstan's,' he replied confidently." When German bombs destroyed the rest of the church in 1941, the steeple proved Wren correct. The bombed out site was turned into a public garden in the 1970s.

Samuel Pepys mentions the church in one of his diary entries in January 1663, “where a sermon, but I staid not, but went home . . .”