At the end of an alleyway halfway down London’s Cannon St you’ll find the Walbrook Gardens.
These new gardens occupy the site of the previous St Swithun’s Church Garden, which itself was sited within the footprint of the church that preceded it. St Swithin, London Stone was established in the 13th century, rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren in 1678 after the Great Fire of London and was heavily damaged by a bomb during the Blitz in 1940, rendering it uninhabitable. It’s demolition didn’t come about until 22 years later, in 1962.
In 2005, construction started on a new Norman Foster building, the Walbrook (named after an adjacent street) which was completed in 2010, with the new gardens coming soon after. As you can see from the photographs, even though the new building looms over them on two sides, the Walbrook Gardens are a rather intimate and peaceful space. They’re clearly not well-known, even to local office workers, as I was there during Friday lunchtime and didn’t see a soul as I was wandering around.
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