Exploring the Unreal City: A Waunder 'Round the City

If, at some cocktail party somewhere in the future, you overhear someone refer to the "City of London," do NOT chime in with some enthusiastic account of your tour of Parliament or the fun you had on the London Eye. London may be one of the largest cities in the world, but when Londoners refer to The City, they are almost always talking about the original square mile that was once known as Roman London. Nowadays it is the central financial and business district of London; flooded with suits on the weekdays, almost deserted on the weekends (in the smack center of a city of 14 million, the City has only 8,000 inhabitants). So it was an odd, and ultimately inspired choice, for Jason and I to go rambling through the urban jungle this past Sunday.

Our original intentions were just to visit Old Spitalfields Market, just outside of the City. This was part of my effort to visit all the major markets in London despite having no money to spend at them.London has some truly excellent markets and, while smaller then Camden Market or Portabello Roads, Spitalfields had some of the most unique and original stalls in the city. We browsed the bargain couture, the miniaturized Banksy's and the dime store paperbacks, then had fresh and delicious prosciutto and sun-dried tomato sandwiches.

After lunch we set off wandering south. The vague goal,was to find this cool little church Jason had stumbled upon once. The result was a rambling and unorganized walk through the City.

Everywhere in London you can find historical and modern elements mixed together, but but nowhere is there as a pronounced juxtaposition between old and new as here in the oldest heart of London. Churches dating back to the 1600's (some with pre- Great Fire routes tracing back to the Dark Ages or Roman times), cuddle up to the bases of skyscrapers. It's a strange cognitive task to take in the ancient and modern, the spiritual and commercial so nonchalantly co-existing. The lack of human presence in the streets made it even more odd. On a Sunday afternoon, when the City is drained of businessmen and morning church-goers the streets are almost completely empty, and you can meander from church to church, shivering in the ghostly shadows of office buildings. It's almost surreal and strangely peaceful, probably the only time of the week the financial district can claim to be so.

For one measly mile the City has an excessive amount of interesting surprises. We happened upon the

Monument (tragically it is completely enveloped in scaffolding until 2009) and countless little churches which I made us investigate thoroughly. Finally we stumbled upon the one we'd been looking for in a desultory way for the past 4 hours. It was well worth the hunt. St. Dunstan's in the East is a tiny oasis of green in the concrete jungle of the city. Originally a medieval church with a Wren tower, the interior was decimated in World War Two. Instead of rebuilding the City then hollowed out the inside, left the exterior walls and created a small open air garden. It's unique and solemnly peaceful, definitely worth a visit.

By then it was early evening, the sun was starting to go down and we were thoroughly chilled. We retired to an interesting little tea shop in the shadow of the greatest Wren church of all, beautiful and dominating St. Paul's.