RECENTLY UPDATED FOR 2022! With nearly 90 high-resolution images, a new video and detailed tour itinerary, this is the definitive travel guide to London’s city churches.
The Great Fire of 1666 ravaged the old city of London, destroying all that was in its path, including St Paul’s cathedral and 87 parish churches. At the age of 37, the multi-talented Christopher Wren was appointed as Surveyor-General of the King’s Works and tasked with rebuilding what had been lost. It was a project that consumed him for the rest of his life. The fruits of Wren’s labors are on full view today, marvels of art and architecture wedged among the modern city. They are yours to discover.
What’s in this guidebook
★ Art and architecture review. We provide background on Christopher Wren and his design aesthetic, isolating trademark features that you will see again and again while touring. To make things come alive, we have packed our review with high-resolution images.
★ Tour of the highlights. Following our tradition of being the most valuable resource for culture-focused travelers, we offer a tour of Wren’s top London churches (itinerary below). For each, we reveal its most important architectural and decorative features and offer a discussion that ties it all together.
★ Advice for getting the best cultural experience. To help you plan your visit, this guidebook supplies logistical advice, maps and links to online resources. Plus, we give our personal tips for getting the most from your experience while on location.
★ Information the way you like it. As with all of our guides, this book is optimized for intuitive, quick navigation; information is organized into bullet points to make absorption easy; and images are marked up with text that explains important features.
★ NEW! Customers can now print this guidebook with our new PDF-on-Demand service. See the final chapter in the book for details.
ITINERARY
This guidebook offers a tour of Wren’s top 10 churches:
St Bride*
St Magnus the Martyr*
St Margaret Lothbury*
St Margaret Pattens
St Martin Ludgate
St Mary Abchurch
St Mary Aldermary*
St Mary le Bow
St Paul’s cathedral*
St Stephen Walbrook*
To help travelers with limited time prioritize their itineraries, we have marked the six stops that are absolute must-sees with asterisks (*). See all of the churches highlighted in this guidebook on a map visit: http://aprch.us/map-london-churches
ABOUT APPROACH GUIDES
Travel guidebooks for the ultra curious, Approach Guides reveal a destination’s essence by exploring a compelling aspect of its cultural heritage: art, architecture, history, food, or wine.
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- Travel + Leisure
