St Martin-in-the-Fields

IT may not be the first name on their lips when people talk about famous places of worship, but St Martin-in-the-Fields is the most visible parish church in London, at the centre of the tourist route and a regular background feature for city inhabitants going about their daily business. It's fortunate that it is the prettiest church in the capital, easily holding its own against the larger buildings that have sprung up around since its first stone was laid 300 years ago this year.

- James Gibbs

There has been a church on the site since the late 12th century, when, as referenced in the name, parishioners walked across fields to reach it. It was rebuilt in the 16th century and, by the time James Gibbs was drawing up plans for the current building, the site was hemmed in by densely packed courts and alleys. Today's much-loved vistas only opened up after Trafalgar Square and the surrounding streets were laid out from the mid 1830s (the façade of the National Gallery was actually re-aligned to accommodate it).

Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, set in the early 19th century, describes St Martin's as 'standing in a less free situation at that time. There being no open space before it, and the lane [St Martin's Lane] winding down to the Strand'.

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