Mark Lane and Environs Today
All Hallows Staining and Environs Now
Photographed from the north-east corner of the former churchyard of All Hallows Staining near Star Alley, this view of the tower situates the last remnant of the church amid twenty-first century construction.
The tower is flanked by the Clothworker's Hall (rebuilt, 1958) to the west and by the former Corn Exchange (now a twenty-first century office building complete with Corn Exchange Pub) to the south.
Reflected in the windows of the adjacent office building, the 'Gherkin,' completed in 2003, epitomizes the ever-changing London landscape. The building was derided by Prince Charles, who made news by arguing that skyscrapers should be limited 'rather than overshadowing Wren's and Hawksmoor's churches,' and by likening the 'Gherkin' to an 'enormous salt cellar.' For All Hallows Staining, designed neither by Wren nor Hawksmoor, the process of being overshadowed began over one hundred and fifty years ago; its fourteenth-century tower has grown only more deeply embedded in the densely packed financial and business district of London.
The views below of All Hallows Staining--an aerial view of recent construction in the churchyard and a more distant view highlighting both All Hallows Staining and St. Olave Hart Street with the Gherkin to the north and the Tower of London and the Thames to the south--are drawn from Google Earth.
