I walked past St Alphage Garden in the City of London while on my way to the Dark Fairytales book launch last week. I stopped to wander around and take these photos. Not only is it a delightful green space with grassy lawns, trees, flowers and benches to sit, it also nestles between the Gothic arches of a ruined church and the remains of the historic London Wall. The earliest mention of the former church, St Alphege Cripplegate, is from around 1108. London Wall was built by the Romans around 200AD to surround the city.
For any pagan in London, the gardens would be a beautiful place to sit and honour our ancestors of place, or just appreciate nature among the manmade buildings ancient and modern. Walls crumble and fall, but nature always finds a way of returning when they do.
I've been blogging regularly about London's parks, gardens, woods and wild places in an effort to dispel a prevalent myth in the pagan community that it's just all concrete. Even in the City, which is of course heavily built up, there are still areas where nature thrives. Interestingly, some are where there used to be churches that are no longer sites of Christian worship. To me this feels symbolic of pagan nature worship subtly regrowing.
Here are links to some of my earlier posts on Green London:
- The Ruins of St Dunstan's in the East: http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2023/08/green-london-ruins-of-st-dunstans-in.html
- Lincoln's Inn Fields: http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2023/06/green-london-lincolns-inn-fields.html
- Green Park's Grove and Haunted Trees: http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2025/08/green-london-green-parks-grove-and.html
St Mary Staining Garden and Plane Tree: http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2025/02/green-london-st-mary-staining-garden.html - Victoria Embankment Gardens: http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2025/08/green-london-victoria-embankment-gardens.html
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