LONDON on the Ground

The residential estate in the City of London is "arguably one of the country’s most important early 1950s housing estates". So says English Heritage in its Grade II listing of the estate. It is certainly one of the more imaginative examples of modernist residential architecture. Commissioned by the City of London Corporation and completed between 1952 and 1962, it stands between Golden Lane and Goswell Road at the northern border of the City. Built on a bomb site, the esta

The Wren church near St Paul’s has many interesting features and a hidden courtyard of surprises. First, let me explain the unusual name of this church. Vedast was a sixth century bishop of Arras, in the border region between France and Flanders. Known as Vaast in Flemish, his greatest claim to fame is probably his conversion to Christianity of the Frankish king, Clovis.   St Vedast was venerated by Flemish merchants who came to England in the 12 th  century, when his name w

Bombed City of London churches and Guildhall through the eyes of an artist in the 1940s. St Paul's Cathedral by Ernest Borough Johnson...

Unpublished drawings of St Paul’s and Blitz-damaged Wren churches in the 1950s and 1960s. St Paul's Cathedral and St Nicholas Cole Abbey,...

A small City of London park with a rich history surprised me with a link to my past. St Mary Aldermanbury Garden St Mary Aldermanbury...

The World War II story was painted by artist Carel Weight. On a recent trip to Manchester, I came across a four-panel oil painting...