The Church that Inspired the Tiered Wedding Cake: St. Bride's Fleet Street

London's St. Bride's Church on Bride Lane, just off Fleet Street, has a tower that looks like a tiered wedding cake. You might think that the cake inspired the spire, built to the design of Sir Christopher Wren. It was the other way round. The spire inspired a local baker to design a wedding cake that looked like St. Bride’s tower. The name of the church no doubt helped with the inspiration. Spire, spire, please inspire.

Although the current version of St. Bride's, like many London churches, was built after the Great Fire of 1666, a church has been here since Anglo-Saxon times, possibly earlier. Part of a Roman street can be found in its crypt, along with other artifacts and a detailed history of the church and surrounding area. 

St. Bride’s was once known as the printers’ church. The church contains a memorial to Wynken de Worde, the first man to set up a printing press on Fleet St., in 1500. Many other printers followed, and newspapers began to be printed there in the 18th century. 

In Victorian times Fleet Street became synonymous with the newspaper press, and St. Bride's became known as the journalists' church. The interior was largely destroyed by enemy bombing during the Blitz but has been beautifully restored. Today the church contains a memorial to journalists killed in the line of duty, many quite recently. It is well worth a visit.