St Dunstan-in-the-East: the garden inside a bombed church, London

A few minutes from the Tower of London, wedged between the offices of the City, there is a block that many tourists walk past without noticing. And yet, behind the wall on St Dunstan's Hill, the ruins of a church open up: Gothic arches, glassless windows, a bell tower still standing and, where the nave once was, a garden with a small fountain at its centre. This is St Dunstan-in-the-East, one of the most singular places in London precisely because it is neither wholly a church nor wholly a park.

The history

The history explains the atmosphere. A church already stood here around the year 1100. Damaged by the Great Fire of London in 1666, it was repaired with the addition of a tower and a steeple designed by Christopher Wren, the architect of St Paul's Cathedral. In the nineteenth century the main body was rebuilt. Then, in 1941, the German bombing of the Blitz devastated the building: Wren's tower and the perimeter walls were left standing. Instead of demolishing or rebuilding everything, in 1967 the City of London Corporation decided to turn the ruin into a public garden, which opened in 1971.

The garden today

What you see today is the result of that decision. The surviving walls are deliberately left bare and covered in climbers: ivy, wisteria and other plants scale the arches and frame the window openings, so that the sky and the surrounding skyscrapers can be seen through the stone. The ground level is sunk below the street, and this helps to dampen the noise of the traffic. It is a small place: twenty minutes or so are enough to walk it, but it is the kind of spot where you sit down on a bench and stay longer than you meant to. Wren's tower, on the St Dunstan's Hill side, now houses offices and cannot be visited, but it remains the most recognisable feature from outside.

Getting there

Getting there is easy. The address is St Dunstan's Hill, EC3R 5DD, in the Billingsgate area. The nearest metro station is Monument (Circle and District lines), about four minutes' walk away; alternatively Tower Hill, also on Circle and District, about ten minutes away. The main railway stations are Fenchurch Street and London Bridge. The garden lies roughly halfway between London Bridge and the Tower of London, so it is easy to fit into an itinerary that also takes in the Monument to the Great Fire, Tower Bridge and the Sky Garden just beyond.

Practical information

Admission is free and no booking is needed. The garden is open every day, generally from 8 until 7 pm or dusk if it falls earlier, closing on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. Two practical warnings: sometimes the area is closed to the public for private events, and on weekdays at lunchtime it fills up with City workers who come here to eat and get some air. If you are looking for the quietest moment, avoid the weekday lunch break and aim for early morning or the weekend. Spring, with the climbers in bloom, is the time when the contrast between the stone and the greenery comes across best.