St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate
I was interviewed today by the Spitalfields Life website about the photographs of Billingsgate Market which I published recently. While I was going to the meeting I stopped to take some photos around St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate church. The most unusual feature is a Turkish Baths, just outside the church courtyard, dating back to 1895. It looks very out of place surrounded as it is by modern high-rise office blocks, although today it’s run as Turkish restaurant.
Between the Turkish Baths and the church is a classical red-brick building that was once the Hall of the Worshipful Company of Fan Makers, then a school and now the church hall. In the niches on the front of the building are figures of charity children, a boy and a girl, sculpted in Coade stone. These sculptures are copies of the originals which reside within.
Inside the church is a lovely plaque commemorating those who fell in the First World War.
Altogether a very tranquil corner of what is a very busy part of the City of London.
