Description
Old Change Court is a landscaped area laid out in the 1960s as part of City Walkway and overlooks St Nicholas Cole Abbey. There are areas of grass, paving and seats, small trees and shrubs and a sculpture by Michael Ayrton, 'Icarus', dated 1973. This is dedicated to Bernard Sunley (1910-1964) 'who loved gardens and the City of London' and it was presented to the Corporation of London by the Bernard Sunley Investment Trust Ltd.
Practical Information
| Site location | Old Change Court, off Carter Lane |
|---|---|
| Postcode | EC4M 8EN |
| What3Words | ///large.loser.modest |
| Type of Site | Public Gardens |
| Borough | City of London |
| Open to Public | Yes |
| Opening Times | unrestricted |
| Public Transport | Tube: St Paul's (Central) |
| Research Updated | 1 June 2010 |
| Last Updated | 18 October 2026 |
Further Information
| Grid Reference | TQ321810 |
|---|---|
| Size in hectares | 0.2386 |
| Site Ownership | City of London Corporation |
| Site Management | Open Spaces Dept. |
| Dates | 1960s |
| On National Heritage List for England (NHLE), Parks & Gardens | No |
| Registered common or village green on Commons Registration Act 1965 | No |
| Protected under London Squares Preservation Act 1931 | No |
| Local Authority | City of London |
| In Conservation Area | No |
| Tree Preservation Order | No |
| Nature Conservation Area | No |
| Green Belt | No |
| Metropolitan Open Land | No |
| Special Policy Area | No |
| Other LA Designation | Strategic Viewing Corridor |
Gallery
Please note the Inventory and its content are provided for your general information only and are subject to change. It is your responsibility to check the accuracy.
Nearby parks and gardens
It is not known why the church was called St Nicholas Cole Abbey. The pre-Fire church was ancient, the main body predating its C14th tower and south aisle. By the C16th the church was below the surrounding ground level, which had been raised in the interim. Destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, a new and larger church by Wren was built in 1677. The church was bombed in WWII and rebuilt in 1961/2 but later closed to worship. Gate piers and railings remain either side of the flight of steps leading up to the church door from Queen Victoria Street, with gravelled areas either side.
The Festival Gardens were laid out in 1951 by Sir Albert Richardson for the Corporation of London's contribution to the Festival of Britain. The layout, which followed the ground plan of pre-war buildings destroyed as a result of WWII bombing, consisted of a sunken lawn with a wall fountain, donated by the Worshipful Company of Gardeners, surrounded by a raised paved terrace with stone parapets and seating, planting in tubs and a number of trees including a lime hedge. Georg Ehrlich's sculpture 'The Young Lovers' was purchased by the Corporation and installed in the gardens in 1969. The circular Festival Information Kiosk that was originally sited here was re-erected in nearby Carter Lane Garden in 1955, but since removed.
Carter Lane Garden was laid out post WWII on an area that had originally been intended for a traffic scheme south of St Paul's Cathedral. It follows the ground-plan of the pre-war buildings over whose bombed foundations it was formed. In 1955 a circular Information Pavilion built for the Festival of Britain in 1951 in nearby Festival Gardens, was re-erected in the north-west corner. This remained until 2007 when a new information kiosk designed by make architects was erected, at the same time as re-landscaping of the garden. It is divided into two areas either side of the wide paved path that forms the pedestrian route from St Paul's to the Millennium Bridge and Tate Modern.
