St Mary sits just where she has for over 900 years. She is Aldermary because she is the oldest of the city St Marys, having been on this site since around 1100. The great fire of 1666 didn't completely destroy St Mary, leaving the base of the tower and some of the walls. The rebuild was overseen by John Oliver, one of Christopher Wren’s deputies, who was asked by the parishioners to follow the perpendicular style of the burnt building, using the original foundations.
St Mary is now the home of a group called Moot, a new-monastic community where those "who may not relate to traditional or contemporary expressions of church can find a spiritual path within the Christian contemplative tradition"
This St Mary is not easy to see from a good drawing distance. Because the building is squashed into a triangular site, the tower is on the south side and the nave is anything but rectangular, and it's hemmed in by blocks of offices and shops. It's easy to get up close, but I couldn't get far enough away to find a view that gave me the tower and the church. So, I chose the South East view which favoured the tall, elegant tower, sat on a chair unknowingly donated by the local O'Neill's and drew in the sunshine.
One and a half hours later I had the drawing at a point where I felt I could leave it and I just got back to work in time for a pressing meeting. I'm pleased with this - I like the thick, wobbly line, the proportions are about right and perspective works. I would have like to have time to draw in more action on the street - more people, traffic - but I like the couple on the left, who were having a lunchtime liason and stayed long enough for me to get them into the drawing.
Lots of comments as I was on a busy corner: accosted by a man handing out fliers who tried to persuade me I needed a second income. Two sharp suited young city boys went past, discussing why everyone was drawing: must be national drawing day, they speculated.
Wren's gothic here
Moot's history page here
Map here
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