5/5 Eliot C. 1 year ago on Google
The
Guild
Church
of
St
Margaret
Pattens
in
the
City
of
London
is
a
beautiful
example
of
Sir
Christopher
Wren’s
work
in
London.
Notable
for
its
200ft
Gothic
spire,
the
church
is
overlooked
by
the
iconic
Walkie
Talkie
on
Fenchurch
Street.
The
church
can
trace
its
origins
back
to
1067
when
the
freshly
crowned
King
William
I
gave
the
newly
built
wooden
chapel
of
St
Margaret
to
the
abbot
of
St
Peter’s,
Westminster.
It
is
unknown
when
that
wooden
church
was
rebuilt
in
stone
but
the
stone
church
had
to
be
demolished
in
1530
due
to
neglect
and
disrepair.
The
next
church
on
the
site
was
short-lived.
Built
in
1538
but,
located
a
stone’s
throw
from
an
infamous
Pudding
Lane
Bakery,
it
completely
destroyed
in
the
Great
Fire
of
London
in
1666.
The
current
structure
was
built
by
Sir
Christopher
Wren
in
1687,
a
decade
after
the
completion
of
Wren’s
Monument
to
the
Great
Fire
nearby.
The
church
is
well
lit
with
round
windows
in
the
clerestory.
The
interior
colours
of
white
and
pink
contrast
well
with
the
dark
oak
furnishings.
Beneath
the
organ
and
gallery
at
the
West
end
of
the
nave
stand
a
pair
of
canopied
churchwardens’
pews.
The
church
has
a
historic
association
with
the
Worshipful
Company
of
Pattenmakers,
from
which
it
is
thought
to
derive
its
name.
Pattens
are
wooden
overshoes,
worn
to
lift
the
wearer
out
of
the
dirt,
debris
and
worse
on
the
streets
of
Medieval
and
Early
Modern
London.
There
is
a
display
case
of
pattens
in
the
church’s
narthex.
In
1954,
the
church
became
one
of
the
City’s
guild
churches
and
now
hold
services
on
Thursdays.
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