Cloth Fair in the City of London

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As those who have followed our travels will know, we spent a pleasant time at a Landmark Trust property near Spitalfields in London last year and decided to revisit the city trying out a new location.

Around the corner from the handsome Victorian buildings of Smithfield Market, Cloth Fair overlooks the churchyard of St Bartholomew the Great, a rare survivor of the Great Fire of 1666.

This plain Georgian row of houses encloses (at No. 41) the only remaining house in the City built before the Fire and was rescued on this basis by architect Paul Paget, who eventually sold the row to Landmark. Here long-established institutions, trades, houses, markets and peoples mingle just as they have always done. Set, as they always were, above businesses below, our two houses each have a respectable staircase, pleasant rooms and nice old joinery - wonderful bases from which to explore the whole of London.

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Sheila and I booked No 43 Cloth Fair. It occupies the first and second floors and has a small roof terrace, No. 43 was long the London home of Sir John Betjeman and still looks much as it did when he lived here including the wallpaper in the sitting room, a William Morris design called Acorn. Of course, the library is now filled with his writings as it feels very appropriate that an organisation that cares for historic buildings looks after the home of someone who championed the cause in the UK.

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Alas, just as we were leaving home we received a telephone call from the Landmark Trust Office to say that the central heating had broken down and a spare part was required. By a lucky coincidence the adjacent similar property was free and we could occupy it. Thats what happened and we stayed nice and cosy at 45.

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