Pity the poor Gherkin. When it was first completed in 2004, it was hailed as an architectural marvel and instantly became an iconic symbol of the London skyline alongside the London Eye, Tower Bridge, Big Ben and St Pauls. It stood out in the landscape of the City, with the Nat West Tower and the […]
Anyone who has spent time investing in markets will have discovered that it can be a humbling experience. Though the streets of London are said to be paved with gold, investing in the stock market can prove the negative. Sometimes the clarity of your insight and the brilliance of your analysis can be right, but […]
One of the worst buildings in the city of London in my opinion is Minster Court. I remember it being built when I first started in the city in the 1980s. It’s interesting to observe the changing building styles as you walk around the Square Mile. If you are in the eastern part of the […]
So, where is your dream house, if money was no object? Is it one of the pencil-thin penthouses on Billionaires row in New York City? Is it a stately home somewhere in the home counties around London? A friend of mine always had his heart set on a traditional Japanese house in Kyoto and recently […]
At first nowhere, and then everywhere. The church of St Peter Westcheap disappeared around 400 years ago, and if you are rushing for your next meeting down past the shops on Cheapside, you may never be aware that this lost church ever existed. But if you stop for a minute and look around you, you […]
One of the joys of walking around London is the trip across the Millennium Bridge from the Tate Modern to St Paul’s Cathedral. As you cross the river here, there’s the most magnificent vista of St Paul’s in front of you. Strangely, neither the Corporation of the City of London, nor the Tate Gallery, wanted […]
Whenever you come across a small empty space or a pocket garden in the City of London, you can be fairly sure that it is the site of an old church or churchyard. Why else would such valuable real estate not be built upon? The site of St Pancras Soper Lane is a good example […]
The lost church of St Olave Silver Street stood at the cross roads of four streets – Falcon Street, Monkwell Street, Silver Street and Noble Street in an area known as Falcon Square. The church, the square and three of the streets have now all gone, leaving only Noble Street which runs alongside the old […]
The lost church of St Nicholas Olave is clearly visible on the Copperplate Map of 1555 and you can see it surrounded by many other churches in the later Agas map of 1560. This is a good illustration of just how many churches were stuffed into such a small area in the medieval city. This […]
If you walk down Nicholas Lane in the City you will find a blue plaque on the wall stating “Site of the parsonage of St Nicholas Acons where scientific life assurance began in 1762” . It commemorates the first office of Equitable Life, the world oldest mutual insurer, which pioneered scientific life assurance by basing […]
