★★★★★ 5.0
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St Paul’s Church Covent Garden
This magnificent church is completely backwards... and it was done on purpose. Standing before this grand portico in Covent Garden's piazza, you're looking at England's most elaborate fake door - sealed shut since 1633 when architect Inigo Jones realized his design violated Christian tradition by placing the altar at the wrong end. The 4th Earl of Bedford had asked for a church "not much better than a barn," and Jones famously replied, "You will have the finest barn in England." What you see is indeed that finest barn - the first purpose-built Protestant church in all of England, constructed for the staggering sum of £4,886 when laborers earned pennies per day. This land once fed Westminster Abbey's monks as a walled convent garden, giving Covent Garden its name. But tragedy would soon mark these grounds... Margaret Ponteous became London's first recorded plague victim in April 1665, buried right here in the churchyard behind you where street performers now gather daily beneath Jones's blocked entrance. The real entrance lies hidden around the side, leading to an interior where Grinling Gibbons' exquisite carved pulpit somehow survived the devastating fire of 1795 that gutted everything else. JMW Turner was baptized at that very font, and the composer of "Rule Britannia" lies buried beneath your feet in what locals lovingly call "The Actors' Church" - a backwards building that became London's theatrical heart.
Did You Know?
- St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, is affectionately known as 'The Actors’ Church' due to its centuries-long connection with London’s theatre community, dating back to the 17th century when the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane—the first West End theatre—opened nearby; today, the church houses memorials to legendary figures like Charlie Chaplin, Vivien Leigh, and Noël Coward, making it a pilgrimage site for theatre lovers.
- Inigo Jones, the pioneering architect, was commissioned by the 4th Earl of Bedford to design the church as part of London’s first formal square, Covent Garden Piazza; when asked to build a simple church 'not much better than a barn,' Jones famously replied, 'Then you shall have the handsomest barn in England'—the resulting design was inspired by ancient Etruscan temples, and its grand portico, though impressive, is actually a 'fake' entrance, as the altar was moved to the traditional east end at the last minute, leaving the grand doors on the piazza permanently closed.
- St Paul’s Churchyard holds a unique place in London’s history as the burial site of Margaret Ponteous, the first recorded victim of the Great Plague of London in 1665; the church also boasts connections to famous figures such as the painter J.M.W. Turner and composer Thomas Arne (who wrote 'Rule, Britannia!'), both of whom were baptized here, while the woodcarver Grinling Gibbons—renowned for his intricate carvings in St Paul’s Cathedral—was among those buried in the churchyard before burials ceased in the 1850s.