Blitzed City Churches
There have been churches in the City of London—NWren churches —which from the strictly parochial point of view were redundant, and some time ago a proposal for the sale of the sites of several of them was seriously considered. Happily the Bishop of London's Comfnission on the City Churches, which has .issued an interim report, takes the view that they should be treated as a national heritage, most of them being of great architectural and historical interest. It therefore recommends that no Wren Church, not already destroyed or damaged beyond the possibil4 of satisfactory restora- tion, should be removed. Of the 45 churches that survived the Great Fire of 1666 there are 17 which have been seriously damaged, and it is estimated that half of these are capable of being restored. These, in the opinion of the Commission, should be saved, but it appears to accept the fact that eight or nine are a total loss. On the sites of three of these it is proposed to build institutes com- prising halls and suites of rooms equipped for the recreation of young workers in the City, the remaining sites being sold and the pro- ceeds devoted to the institutes or to the needs of the diocese of Lon- don. The point to be insisted oh is that no Wren church which admits of satisfactory restoration should be condemned as a total loss.
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