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the spire that invented the wedding cake

St Bride's Church

FreeHidden gem
City of London · Blackfriars
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Wren's masterpiece off Fleet Street, the journalists' church, whose tiered spire is said to have inspired the wedding cake.

Getting there. Just off Fleet Street on St Bride's Avenue, a short walk from Blackfriars.
Free historic church
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City of London · Blackfriars
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The lowdown

Tucked just off Fleet Street, St Bride's is one of Christopher Wren's finest churches and for centuries the spiritual home of the British press, its walls lined with memorials to journalists who died in the field. Its elegant spire rises in diminishing tiers, and legend says a local baker copied its shape to create the very first tiered wedding cake.

There has been a church on this site for some 1,500 years, and beneath the building a free crypt museum reveals Roman pavement and centuries of London history uncovered after the Blitz. It is a quiet, free and richly storied stop a stone's throw from the old newspaper street.

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The insider tip

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Go down into the free crypt to see the Roman remains and the medieval history laid bare after wartime bombing. Look for the memorials to fallen war correspondents that make this the journalists' church.
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