St. Brides Church

The spire out our window turned out to be the famous St. Brides Church. This church is actually the eighth on the site starting with the Romans. It was founded by St. Brides, or St. Bridgit. The church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, and then (as many churches of that time were) rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren. The rebuilding was finished on the same day St. Paul's was begun. The church had no  stained glass. This was apparently Wren's style; he like natural light and good acoustics. The only piece of stained glass was a modern work. In accordance with Wren's love of natural light, there were giant windows, each with a domed window above it, so in actuality, there was plenty of light. The greatest aspect of Wren's church was the spire. As it goes up, archways cover the steeple. A legend is told how the first tiered wedding cake came to be. A baker's daughter was married in the church, and the father wanted to copy the spire. Thus, the tiered wedding cake was born. Also, the girls wedding dress is kept in the crypt. Unfortunately, Wren's church was destroyed by the German bombers by 1940, and only the spire remained. The modern day church was built as close to Wren's as possible. The crypt was very interesting. It had been sealed off in 1853 by order of Parliament. (It was believed a disease was spread by the dead and what not.) Archaeologists discovered pits of bones, which were believed to come from the graveyard when it got a little too crowded. They also discovered lots of bodies that were buried with coffin plates stating all their information. Only the skull and long bones survived, but scientist apparently love to study them. Personally they were a little freaky. We saw their jawbones with many of their teeth still attached. They  looked disgusting.
If you would like to know more you can visit: //www.stbrides.com/