London – Amen Corner

The beautifully named Amen Corner is located near to St. Paul’s Cathedral, in the bottom-right of the above map from the end of the nineteenth century.

Although the buildings along Amen Corner are modern (and rather unimpressive), the street-line is original and is unchanged. The street takes its name from when monks used to walk along Paternoster Row chanting the Lord’s Prayer and they would reach the “Amen” section just as they walked down this street, before entering St. Paul’s Cathedral. That’s the story on Wikipedia and the one that’s repeated the most often on-line.

However, a different reason was given in the nineteenth century, which was that this was where monks would find a corner to repeat their prayers privately, in the hope that they would be fortunate for a whole year. There’s probably more to this story than the perceived origin quoted today, but, I have no idea…..