St Ethelburga the Virgin
City of London, Greater London
One of the few surviving medieval City churches in London, the foundation date of the church is unknown, but it was first recorded in 1250 as the church of St Adelburga the Virgin.
This configuration was disrupted after 1992, when an IRA bomb shattered all the glass windows and destroyed the east window of the Nuns' Choir. The current Evangelical ministry of the church set up ranks of chairs facing the pulpit in the middle of the south wall, with a (to some) uncomfortable result that disturbs the impact of the best set of pre Fire monuments of a London parish church.
Architecture historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner lamented that 'the [1993'95] restoration shows no sense of a creative dialogue between past and present. The loss to the viewer's perception of the unique early history of the church is also grave.'
However, the architect Quinlan Terry took the opportunity to restore the floor to its original medieval level and to install a new gallery along the full width of the west end.
