Monuments & Ruins

Not every statue in London. The ones worth crossing the road for: Roman wall, medieval ruins, and the monuments that earn a detour.

Tell us what we can do better, or what you’re trying to discover.

St Alban's Tower, Wood Street

Wren in Gothic, marooned on an island in the middle of the carriageway with its church gone.

RuinsFree

Photo by Neddyseagoon at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The parish clerk's accounts here run back to 930, and by tradition the site held a chapel to Offa's palace before that. Inigo Jones was among those asked to inspect the medieval building in 1633; it was found beyond saving and rebuilt the next year, then burnt in the Great Fire. What Wren put up in its place, finished in 1685, is one of the few churches he did in Perpendicular Gothic rather than the classical he is remembered for - clustered piers, unusually flat pointed arches, plaster vaults. Bombing in 1940 left it a shell, the shell was cleared, and the tower alone was kept. The road was then rebuilt around it, which is why it now stands on its own island with traffic going by on both sides.

Where
Wood Street, EC2V
Nearest station
St. Paul's · 4 min walk

NearbyMonuments & Ruins

NearbyOther Categories

See more nearby listings

Submit a correction for this listing.

Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

Which area are you in?