Home Destinations Europe England London Sights St. Paul's Church

St. Paul's Church Review

Read our London sights reviews. Or post your own.

St. Paul's Church

Address: Bedford St., Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9ED | Map It

Category: Religious Sites
Location: Soho and Covent Garden

Write a review

Fodor's Review:

If you want to commune with the spirits of Vivien Leigh, Noël Coward, Edith Evans, or Charlie Chaplin, this might be just the place. Memorials to them and many other theater greats are found in this 1633 work of the renowned Inigo Jones, who, as the King's Surveyor of Works, designed the whole of Covent Garden Piazza (Wren's St. Paul's Cathedral is eastward in the City). St. Paul's has been known as "the actors' church" since the Restoration, thanks to the neighboring theater district and St. Paul's prominent parishioners. (Well-known actors often read the lessons at services, and the church still hosts concerts and small-scale productions.) Fittingly, the opening scene of Shaw's Pygmalion takes place under its Tuscan portico. The western end of the Piazza in front of the portico is a prime pitch for street entertainers, but if they're not to your liking, you can repair to the serenity of the garden entered from King or Bedford streets.