St Dunstan in the East

A church stood here from around 1100, was damaged in the Great Fire of 1666 and patched up, and Christopher Wren added a steeple in 1695 whose needle spire on flying buttresses was said to be his own favourite; when a storm in 1703 brought down other City steeples he is reported to have said he had no fear for that one, and it stood. The body of the church was rebuilt in the 1810s and destroyed in the Blitz in 1941, leaving the tower, the outer walls and the window openings. Rather than rebuild, the City decided in 1967 to plant the shell as a public garden, and it is now filled with a lawn, a fountain, and climbers running up through the empty tracery. It is free, unstaffed and open through the day.

What you actually see

• The Wren steeple - the 1695 spire on flying buttresses, still standing.
• The planted shell - climbers growing through empty window openings.
• The Blitz ruin - walls left as they were after 1941.
• The City setting - a quiet garden between office towers.

When to go

April to September, when the planting is at its fullest; the garden is open daily through daylight hours and closes in the evening. Lunchtime brings City workers, and early mornings are the quietest.

Honest expectations

It is small, walked in fifteen minutes, and it has become well known enough through photographs that a queue sometimes forms for the best angle. Access is down a steep lane. There are no facilities.

Nearby

The Monument and Tower Bridge are minutes away; the Tower of London lies east.