Have you ever tried to colour in areas on a map? Here we describe the four colour map method. This a mathematical problem first posed by Francis Guthrie in 1852. He was trying to colour in a map of the counties of England with the fewest possible colours (colour printing was expensive), and found he […]
Lost London Churches Blog
The Eight (Deadly) Hallows Walk
Before the Great Fire of 1666 there were eight churches in the City dedicated to “All Hallows”, meaning “all the saints” rather than one saint in particular. It seems the bankers and traders of the City 400 years ago already knew something about hedging their bets. It’s a circular walk of just over 4.5 kilometres […]
The Four Botolphs Walk
This circular walk of 4 km takes you around the four churches dedicated to St Botolph. As you may know, St Botolph is the patron saint of trade and travel so his churches were next to city gates. That meant travellers could say a prayer and ask for a blessing before setting off on a […]
The Great Fire
The Great Fire of London wiped out three quarters of the City in 1666. It started in a bakery in Pudding Lane around midnight on Sunday 2 November. The site is marked by the famous Monument – a tall stone column with a golden representation of the fire at its peak. The fire raged until […]
The 13 Dragon Walk
The 13 dragon walk of 12km takes you around the boundaries of the City of London past all of the cast iron, dragon headed columns that mark the edges of the City like the one on the right here. The arrow symbols on the map mark the dragons. Although the boundary line actually runs down […]
Sir Christopher Wren
Despite being a sickly child when he was born in 1632 in Wiltshire, Sir Christopher Wren survived to the ripe old age of 91. When he died in 1723, he was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral – the crowning glory of his architectural career. The Latin inscription on his memorial famously reads LECTOR SI MONUMENTUM […]
St Andrew Undershaft
St Andrews Undershaft is dwarfed by the three iconic buildings in the City of London which surround it; the Gherkin, The Cheesegrater and the Scalpel. There has been a church on this site since the 12th Century. It is dedicated to St Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland. The name “Undershaft” comes from a famous […]
St Benet Fink
Benet is a shortened form of the name Benedict. The benefactor who paid for the church to be rebuilt in the 13 Century was Robert Fink ( or Finch). A lane just off Threadneedle Street called Finch Lane is named after the same person. So the church was known a St Benet Fink. The Church […]