Whitefriars Crypt

The lowdown

Down the narrow Magpie Alley off Fleet Street, where the walls are lined with tiles telling the story of the area's printing past, lies a genuine surprise. At the bottom, through a glass wall set into the basement of a modern office, you can see a preserved medieval crypt, the last remnant of the great Whitefriars Carmelite monastery that once stood here.

Rediscovered during redevelopment and carefully kept, the vaulted stone chamber sits eerily beneath the glass and steel. It is free to view at any time through the window, a direct and atmospheric link to the religious houses that filled this corner of London before the Reformation.