Hidden down an alley south of Fleet Street, St Bride’s is known as the journalists’ church: in the north aisle, a shrine is dedicated to hacks killed in action. Down in the crypt, a surprisingly interesting little museum displays fragments of the churches that have existed on this site since the sixth century, as well as some portions of Roman tessellated floor, which you can view using a pair of angled mirrors.
An 18th-century Fleet Street pâtissier, William Rich, was famous for tiered wedding cakes, which he modelled on the lovely Wren-designed spire of St Bride’s – the template for such cakes ever since, as the tour guides never tire of explaining. Intriguingly, the church’s marital connections might run much deeper than that. It’s likely that the holy well that gave the original church its location had been a site of pagan worship – including the blessing of relationships.