St Bride’s: The Church That Inspired The Wedding Cake

If you are interested in uncovering the secrets of London’s history, then a trip to St Bride’s Church off Fleet Street should be at the top of your to-do list.

It has been through at least 7 incarnations and its history is entwined inseparably from that of London itself. Samuel Pepys was baptised at St Bride’s, Charles Dickens lived in the parish for a time and King John held several of his councils in the church.

All of this fascinating history is written into the fabric of St Bride’s itself for you to see today. Let me show you around.

The Steeple

What better place to start than the very top.

Picture a wedding cake. Now look at the steeple of St Bride’s Church above. Look similar? Well that’s potentially not a coincidence.

After the Great Fire of London, St Bride’s was rebuilt in 1675 to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. The steeple was completed 28 years later in 1703. At 234ft, it was the tallest church steeple in the city bar St Paul’s.

The story goes that in the 1700s a baker living nearby on Ludgate Hill wanted to make an impressive wedding cake for his fiancé. His eyes falling upon the steeple of St Bride’s, he was inspired to create the first tiered wedding cake.

Previously wedding cakes were rather different. During the 16^th and 17^th centuries a ‘bride pie’ would have been served. A recipe from 1685 includes oysters, lamb’s testicles, pine kernels and cock’s combs. This particular recipe also included a compartment for either live birds or a snake to entertain the guests.

St Bride’s: Royal vs Revolutionary

In the mid 18^th century the steeple triggered a very public argument between US founding father and London resident of the time; Benjamin Franklin and King George III.

In 1764 lightning struck the steeple, knocking off 8ft of height of St Bride’s. Franklin had invented the lightning rod in 1752 so was asked to design one for St Bride’s. Some scientists of the day took issue with the fact it had a sharp end on it, advocating instead a blunt end.

As the American revolutionary war hotted up, King George got involved in the debate and politicised the issue. Both wrote publicly printed letters about the benefits of their chosen style. King George ordered for all lightning rods throughout his empire to have cannonballs placed on top to blunt them or they would be removed. Anti-royalists, particularly in America, would put up sharp-ended rods in defiance of the King. Apparently scientists still can’t decide which is better!

St Bride’s: The Church

The nave is, I think, is one of London’s loveliest. It is bright, open and has a black and white chequered marble floor.

Look out for the monument to the 200 orphans of the Bridewell parish sent over to populate the new world in 1619. It is thought that potentially millions of Americans can trace their ancestry back to these orphans from Bridewell. There is also a bust of Virginia Dare: the first English child to be born in the New World. Her parents, Eleanor White and Ananias Dare, were married in St Bride’s before becoming part of Sir Walter Raleigh’s failed colony of Roanake in America in 1585.

The church is close to the mayhem of Ludgate Circus but is set back in a quiet enclave of alleyways, giving it the feeling of an oasis of calm.

St Bride’s: The Crypt

The crypt of St Bride’s is my favourite part of the church. It is absolutely crammed with historical gems and is very atmospheric with narrow stone doorways and walls lined with gravestones.

The church was gutted during the blitz of 1940 (although the steeple remarkably survived). The bombs revealed much of the crypt and the excavations that followed uncovered the church’s long and turbulent history.

Walk down into the depths and you can see the various incarnations of the church. The different eras of stonework are marked up as you can see below.

You can even see a portion of roman pavement. At the far end is a small medieval chapel, now a memorial to journalists killed on the front line and cabinets of artefacts from the church’s history. One of the most interesting objects for me are fragments of the church bells destroyed in both the Great Fire and the Blitz- the two great traumas in London’s history.

The remains of 7000 bodies from the great plague of 1665 and the cholera epidemic of 1854 were found during excavations. as well as the church charnel house, full of bones, which is unfortunately not currently open to the public.

At the end of the tunnel is a curious iron coffin. This is an example of a method used to foil the attempts of body-snatchers in the early 19^th century. You can read more about this in my body-snatcher gangs of London blog here.

St Bride’s Fleet Street Museum

If you were thinking that they couldn’t possibly fit any more history into one crypt… you’re wrong!

There is also a museum of the history of Fleet Street. St Bride’s is known across the world as the Journalist’s church due to its position at the heart of what used to be the centre of the country’s newspaper industry. The church’s association with the print media in fact goes back further than that to when the first printing press with moveable type was brought here in 1500.

If you would like to read more or visit the church, see more details here.

My Samuel Pepys walk features St Bride’s! Click below to read:

Looking for more London history hidden gems? Click below to have a browse!