St Margaret Pattens Church of England, Eastcheap

Loverly little church in the city. Great wood panels inside this quiet space. It has a mini museum of shoe pattens. These were fixed underneath your shoes to lift your feet above the mud and muck that covered the streets in old London. Inside was clean and tidy, well worth a visit if nearby.

Situated right next door to 20 Fenchurch Street (the Walkie Talkie) this is typical of many of the churches within the City of London that seem slightly out of place with the development of the City (which used to be an area where people lived rather than just worked).

This church is used by The Worshipful Company of Pattenmakers and is a designated guild church under the City of London (Guild Churches) Acts 1952 and 1960. This allows a church to hold weekday rather than Sunday services and is generally used where the population and demographics have changed such that a church would not normally be viable.

Tucked away amidst high rise city buildings, this lovely church has real charm, good facilities and great acoustics. I was singing there with my choir the Vaughan Williams Singers as part of the Brandenburg Festival who use this great venue. Used disabled access as a temporary wheelchair user and the accessible toilet too.

The Guild Church of St Margaret Pattens in the City of London is a beautiful example of Sir Christopher Wren’s work in London. Notable for its 200ft Gothic spire, the church is overlooked by the iconic Walkie Talkie on Fenchurch Street.
The church can trace its origins back to 1067 when the freshly crowned King William I gave the newly built wooden chapel of St Margaret to the abbot of St Peter’s, Westminster. It is unknown when that wooden church was rebuilt in stone but the stone church had to be demolished in 1530 due to neglect and disrepair.
The next church on the site was short-lived. Built in 1538 but, located a stone’s throw from an infamous Pudding Lane Bakery, it completely destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
The current structure was built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1687, a decade after the completion of Wren’s Monument to the Great Fire nearby. The church is well lit with round windows in the clerestory. The interior colours of white and pink contrast well with the dark oak furnishings. Beneath the organ and gallery at the West end of the nave stand a pair of canopied churchwardens’ pews.
The church has a historic association with the Worshipful Company of Pattenmakers, from which it is thought to derive its name. Pattens are wooden overshoes, worn to lift the wearer out of the dirt, debris and worse on the streets of Medieval and Early Modern London. There is a display case of pattens in the church’s narthex. In 1954, the church became one of the City’s guild churches and now hold services on Thursdays.

Took five minutes to overview, nice little chirch. Interesting historical display at entrance.

Very beautiful church, there is a small exhibition of pattern and it's history inside the church

Beautifully preserved historic church in Central London. Designed by Christopher Wren and built 1688

Fantastic hosts of our brass band rehearsals each week. Steeped in interesting history too!