The City of London walks that we offer include some great themes and visit some absolutely wonderful places.
A little way from St. Paul’s there is a lovely little garden known as Postman’s Park. At first glance it seems a peaceful and tranquil place until you take a closer look at the walls behind its bushes and plant beds and you notice that several have tombstones stacked against them.
This is because the garden was once the combined burial ground for several churches that stood hereabouts. Thee have been no burials here since the 1830’s and it has been a garden since the late 19th century so there aren’t actually any former Londoners lying beneath its lawns.
Until the 1980’s this lovely little garden was surrounded by postal buildings and the post men used to use the garden to relax in during their breaks and to eat heir lunches - hence its name Postman’s Park.
When we take people into the garden on our City of London walks we point out the church of St. Botolph Aldersgate which can be seen in the north east corner of the garden. If the church is open we even go inside it, and it really is a high point on our London walks.
There are three churches dedicated to St Botolph in the City of London and the all stood next to a City gate, remembering the days when London was a walled city.
The other two churches to share this dedication are St. Botolph’s Aldgate and St. Botolph’s Bishopsgate.
The reason they were built by City gates is that St. Botolph was a patron saint of travellers and when, in the Middle Ages, people used to leave the safety of the City of London to Walk the dangerous highways and byways that stretched away from the walls, they would stop off at the churches to say a prayer to St. Botolph for protection for their journey.
Should they return safely to London then they would be sure to re-visit the church in order that they might say a prayer of thanks to St. Botolph.
So just an ordinary little church that stands on a busy London thoroughfare really does give you something to look at and provide you with a few nuggets of information that, although perhaps not earth shattering, are certainly interesting.
It’s the discovery of this sort of fact and building that makes our London walks such a great way to see so much more of the City.
