Answering a Few of These London Lunch Bells Can Create Some Heavenly Dining Experiences

Looking for a reasonably priced lunch? Home-cooked and served in a historic setting? Consider dining at a church.

Whether you’re visiting the Tower of London, investigating the Inns of Court, exploring Shakespeare’s Southwark or shopping along Piccadilly, there’s a church cafe to serve you.

The simple and hardy food resembles pub fare, but the atmosphere is homey and unhurried and children are welcome.

If you’re visiting the Tower of London, stroll across Tower Hill for lunch at All Hallows Barking--now, commonly called “All Hallows by the Tower.”

In 1666, diarist Samuel Pepys climbed to “the top of Barking steeple” to watch London burn. The church survived when the fire stopped literally at its porch.

Although World War II air raids in 1940 destroyed much of the old building, the tower still stands. And if you ask the verger to take you on a tour of the undercroft (about $1.50 U.S. per person is the suggested donation), you will see remains of London dating back 1,700 years.

All Hallows stands on the site of a 2nd-Century Roman house. During excavations for repairs in 1928, a pavement from the house was uncovered and is now exposed.

The undercroft also contains a model of Roman London and Saxon remains from the 10th and 11th centuries. Attractive cases display parish registers recording the baptism in 1644 of Pennsylvania’s founder, William Penn, and the marriage in 1797 of American President John Quincy Adams.

The most grisly site in the undercroft is the lime pit, where executioners tossed the headless bodies of people executed on Tower Hill. This area has been covered over and houses a memorial chapel, its altar constructed of stones from Richard I’s crusader castle at Athlit in Palestine.

The second-floor lunchroom, or refectory, occupies a schoolroom where William Penn sat at his books. The room is small but pleasant, with high ceilings and wood paneling. It has 11 tables and a counter where you order your meal.

Most of the food is homemade, including soup and breads. A wholesome shepherd’s pie or quiche cost about $3. You may choose soup and a roll for about $2.25. You also can select from sausages, hard-boiled eggs, fresh fruit and a variety of homemade desserts.

The refectory is open from noon to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday.

If you find yourself on Charterhouse Street in the vicinity of Holborn Circus, you might lunch at St. Etheldreda’s Ely Place. It is convenient to the Public Record Office, Gray’s Inn and Lincoln’s Inn (Chancery Lane Underground Station).

A 15th-Century Bishop of Ely built St. Etheldreda’s in 1291 as a private chapel to serve his London palace. In the 14th Century, the Black Prince and John of Gaunt regularly worshipped here. Today, of the Bishop’s once-vast estate, only the chapel remains.

In 1873, the Fathers of Charity (Rosminians) bought St. Etheldreda’s, making it the first English medieval church to be restored to the Roman Catholics.

I had heard that Ely Place still enjoys the “Bishop’s Liberty” and that no one, not even a city official, may enter without permission.

I thought I’d check on that, so I questioned the elderly guard who stood at his post at the junction of Ely Place and Charterhouse Street.

“Is it true that if a criminal runs into this street, the London police can’t follow him?”

“That’s right,” he said. “But I can hold him and hand him over when they come.”

No hope for sanctuary here, I thought.

You can escape the eagle eye of this guardian by entering Ely Place through Ely Court, a narrow alley off Hatton Garden. This tunnel-like byway expands in the center just enough to accommodate Ye Olde Mitre tavern, a wood-paneled building with hanging flower baskets.

Bishop William Goodrich built a tavern there in 1546 for the use of palace officials, but the present building dates from the 18th Century.

The Pantry, St. Etheldreda’s lunchroom, stands in the old cloisters. You can see part of the 14th-Century floor through a glass trap door. Beef stew, chicken curry or a lamb chop cost about $2.75 each. Chicken Kiev runs a little higher at $3.60. Homemade soup or a sweet costs abut 75 cents each.

The Pantry is open Monday through Friday, noon to 2:15 p.m.

If you’re interested in the Elizabethan theater, you can combine a visit to Shakespeare’s Bankside with lunch at Southwark Cathedral. The Southwark Heritage Centre on Clink Street, just west of the cathedral (London Bridge Underground Station) will help you plan your visit.

Bankside stands along the Thames on the south side of London Bridge. In Elizabethan times it lay outside the city’s jurisdiction. Theaters, bear-baiting rings, taverns, brothels and slums lined its narrow alleyways.

Most modern visitors come to Bankside to see the site of the Globe, William Shakespeare’s own theater. Until recently they had to be content with viewing a plaque on a brewery wall. But in early October archeologists uncovered portions of the Globe’s foundations. The site is on Park Street just east of Southwark Bridge Road.

It takes imagination to conjure up the lively and disreputable Elizabethan world in today’s industrial Bankside, but a visit to the Shakespeare Globe Museum on Rose Alley off Park Street will help. Built on the site of the last bear-baiting ring in Southwark, it offers displays on the history of Bankside and models of its theaters.

When you’re ready for lunch, retrace your steps to Southwark Cathedral, just across Borough High Street from London Bridge Station.

Built about 1220 to serve the Dominican priory of St. Mary Overie (“over the river”), it is the oldest surviving Gothic church in London. Although the priory was dissolved at the Reformation, the church survived as the parish church of St. Saviour. In 1905 it became the cathedral of the new diocese of Southwark.

Because of its location, the cathedral has close ties to Elizabethan actors and dramatists. A monument and stained-glass window commemorate William Shakespeare, who probably worshiped there. Shakespeare’s brother Edmund is buried in the church, along with playwrights John Fletcher and Philip Massinger.

The cathedral’s Chapter House restaurant is housed in a modern building next to the church. It was closed on the day I visited, so I was unable to sample the menu. It is open Monday through Friday, noon to 2 p.m.

If you’re shopping or sightseeing in the West End, you can find an economical meal at St. James’s in Piccadilly. Between Piccadilly and Jermyn at Church Place, it’s just a few blocks west of Regent Street (Piccadilly Circus Underground Station).

Sir Christopher Wren, architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral, designed St. James’s in 1676. It would become the most fashionable church in London and a setting for many society weddings. Like many London churches, it was damaged in 1940-41, but has been fully restored.

Although the brick exterior is not beautiful, the interior is magnificent. Wren called it his ideal of a parish church.

When I visited a few days before Easter, a group of women were dusting and polishing, readying the church for the feast day. One of them was not too busy to welcome me. Her face glowed with pride as she pointed out the decorated plasterwork, an intricate wooden altarpiece carved by Grinling Gibbons, and the marble font at which William Blake was baptized.

The Wren at St. James’s, the church cafe, can be entered directly from Jermyn Street. If you’re coming from Piccadilly, you must walk through the churchyard to the cafe entrance.

In its modern building, the Wren lacks the quaint atmosphere of the Refectory or Pantry. Still, the staff is relaxed and friendly and the fare is inexpensive.

Soup and a roll cost about $2.50. Quiche or turkey and ham pie were about $2.20 each. If you want coffee and pastry, it will be $2.

The Wren is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

I was so pleased with these reasonable lunches that I stopped in at the British Travel Centre on Regent Street to ask for a list of churches that serve lunch.

The man behind the counter looked surprised.

“No one’s ever asked that before,” he said. “I only know about St. James’s. It’s just up the street.”