Christchurch Greyfriars Church Garden
a rose garden inside a ruined church
A rose garden growing inside the bombed-out shell of a Wren church, one of the loveliest free hideaways in the City.
Free to visit · City of London · St Paul's · EC1A 7BA
Opening: Always open
Christopher Wren built a church here after the Great Fire, and the Blitz gutted it in 1940. Rather than rebuild, the City turned the roofless ruin into a garden, and the result is one of the most romantic free spaces in central London, climbing roses and box hedges laid out where the pews once stood, with the surviving tower standing over it all.
Wooden towers stand in for the long-gone columns, and trellises trace the lines of the vanished nave, so you wander what is effectively the ghost of a church planted with flowers. It sits a stone's throw from St Paul's yet hardly anyone stops, which is exactly why it is worth seeking out.
Getting there: On the corner of King Edward Street and Newgate Street, a minute from St Paul's station.
Best time to go: June and July when the roses are out, on a weekday when the City is quiet.
Insider tip: Come in late June when the roses peak. The garden is laid out on the footprint of the old nave, so the timber towers mark where Wren's columns once stood, a free history lesson you can smell.
Free things to do in London · London Free Guide