Paternoster Square

The lowdown

Paternoster Square sits right beside St Paul's, on land flattened in the Blitz and rebuilt around the turn of the millennium into a calm pedestrian piazza. It is home to the London Stock Exchange, and at its centre stands a tall Corinthian column topped with a flaming golden urn, a memorial to the Great Fire and a ventilation shaft in disguise.

Its finest feature is the way you enter it. Temple Bar, the only surviving gateway to the old City, designed by Christopher Wren, once stood on Fleet Street, was removed and exiled to a country estate for over a century, and was finally brought back and rebuilt here in 2004 as the grand arched entrance to the square.

It is free, central and surprisingly peaceful given it is steps from one of the most visited spots in London. A good place to sit with a coffee, admire Wren's gateway and look up at the dome of the cathedral rising behind.