The Temple Church is an incredible building. It was consecrated at the end of the 12th century (1185) and was built as a meeting place for the Knights Templar as part of a larger monastery for the order. The original church has a circular plan whose basis is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It forms the nave and was joined in the 13th century by a rectangular building (the Chancel). A complex history of ownership and use followed, ending with an air raid in the Second World War where the church caught fire following incendiary bombing by German aircraft. It was restored in the fifties and rededicated in 1958. The wonder is that the Temple Church remains at all, and that it forms part of an extraordinary sequence of public spaces hidden away between Fleet Street and The Inner Temple gardens. Many architects (anecdotally) are aware of The Round Church without ever having sought it out, and it would rarely be found without a special trip.
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